The Champions of New and Old
by LuciferIX
Summary: The final part to my "How Lucky Can a Guy Get" series.  Advanceshipping.
1. How Time Flies

Hello again everyone and welcome to my eleventh story. Although this probably isn't what many of you were hoping for my next one that I post would be about, I couldn't help but give it a real finish. Originally I hadn't thought of much that would happen after the last portion of this series but with some of the reviews I couldn't help but start to consider some of it, and it just slowly grew from there until I finally had to get it out of my head completely. Hopefully this one will end in with a better finale than the last one, because as much as I love some of these OC's there are just too many of them. Not only can it be confusing for you as the readers but it's a nightmare for me to try and make sure that they each get their share of the spotlight yet keep things moving smoothly. And let's face it, the people that read Advanceshipping stories would rather read about Ash and May getting together than ones like these. So finally, here is the last portion of the "How Lucky Can a Guy Get" series. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Pokémon or any of the related material. All names, places, and characters are trademarked property of Satoshi Tajiri and Pokémon Co. All rights reserved.

* * *

"Alright Umbreon, time to finish this. Hidden Power!"

Without the slightest hesitation several white orbs began encircling the Dark-Type, circling around him as the balls shrunk in size to allow even more to take shape.

"Now use Hyper Beam!"

Even with the orbs still orbiting it, an orange ball of energy began to build up in Umbreon's mouth, firing off the attack moments later.

"Dodge it Altaria!"

"Nope, it won't be fast enough."

Sure enough, just as the Dragon-Type began to gain altitude in order to avoid the Hyper Beam, its opponent launched the Hidden Power out into every direction. Even though Altaria dodged the one or two orbs aimed directly at her, it became quite evident that wasn't the attack's purpose. In no time they were covering the entire airspace above the battlefield before stopping as a light blue nimbus surrounded each of them the same moment Umbreon's eyes began to glow the same color. Changing direction, each ball started to curve into their target, creating a multi-directional attack that covered every angle of escape.

"Altaria!"

Caught with nowhere to run, every orb hit its mark, causing a large mid-air explosion around Altaria. Knocked unconscious, she quickly began to fall back towards the earth.

"Umbreon, if you would please."

Just before the Pokémon hit ground, a blue aura surrounded it. Slowing down and eventually stopping, the Flying-Type hovered just barely above the earth before gently being placed back on the grass.

"Altaria!" The young boy ran up to his Pokémon.

Giving off a small squeak, the Humming Pokémon opened its eyes just long enough to rest its head on its trainer's shoulder and fall asleep.

"Don't worry, she'll be fine," his opponent told him. "If anything you should be thanking Umbreon a bit, if she fell from that height it would have been quite a bit more serious."

"Thank you," the trainer told them both while hugging his Altaria. "You're really strong; did you compete in the tournament this year?"

"I competed in a tournament, but not this one. I'm just here to watch. My younger sister is in it."

"Come on Jake, we better get going," the girl standing behind him said, waiting impatiently with her Espeon. "We may be in the reserved section but the best seats can still fill up if we aren't careful."

"Sure Sis." Looking back at his opponent, Jake tried to put on a reassuring smile. "Don't worry kid, you did really well. I just have a bit more experience than you. Come on Umbreon!"

"Um, do you mind if I ask for your name?"

"Sure, it's Jake. Jake Ketchum," he called out as he ran off with a wave.

As they all started to get lost in the crowd it took a second for the kid to register the name.

"Wait, I just went up against one of the Ketchums?"

* * *

With the two males catching up to their sisters, the four of them began the walk from the practice fields towards the main stadium.

"Did you really have to go so hard on the poor boy?" Alex asked her twin. "He only looked to be ten or eleven."

"Don't worry so much, a small show of force isn't too bad. Besides, I went a little easy on him anyways."

Jake hadn't changed too much over the years, personality wise at least. Physically though he had slowly matured into a proud teenager. After years of getting grief from his sister he was finally just barely taller than her, and he made sure to gloat about it whenever the opportunity arose. Yet even if they seemed to be always bickering about various issues or getting on each other's nerves, Jake was very protective of his sisters even if it wasn't always openly shown. And though it seemed more so with his twin because he was with her most of the time, that sense of responsibility extended to more than just Alex. With all the traveling he had done through the years he was now solidly built, but not in a bulky sense. While his standard traveling outfit had changed many times over the course of his journey, the general style he tried to keep close to the outfit his grandma gave him years ago. A light blue short-sleeved jacket over a black short-sleeved shirt along with blue jeans and black fingerless gloves was his favorite while in his native region. While not many knew his reason as to why, he was always just proud to wear something close to what his father always used to wear, even if he never really did like the idea of wearing a hat as much. And as he grew older he began to look more and more like his father as well, but some of his softer facial features were the only real thing that he got from his mother. Otherwise it would have almost been impossible to guess who she was compared to his father.

"You call that going easy on him?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow. "You just used a combination that Professor Oak personally developed for his own Umbreon. You even conned Dad into coming over to Kanto that year to get special lessons to master it! How can you call that going easy on the kid!" Pausing to take a deep breath and calm herself, Alex tried to regain her composure. "You know what? I'm not going to go any further. It's pointless to debate it now I guess."

While she may not have had the height advantage anymore, Alex was still making sure that her brother knew his place and didn't go overboard with everything he did, as was all too often his usual. At times she would attest to feeling more like his second mother than a sister, and even though she would never admit it openly she couldn't imagine traveling without him at this point. Just like her brother, she too had grown up over the years. As Jake seemed to enjoy looking like their father as he did when he journeyed through the various regions, Alex was always looking up more to their mom. Keeping the iconic red color, she now wore a long sleeveless red blouse with a deep v-neck line with a black shirt and black biking shorts underneath to keep some modesty. Finishing it off with elbow length black gloves and a red bandanna sporting the Hoenn Battle Frontier logo around her neck there was more than one boy that turned his head as she walked past. And if it wasn't for the death glare that her brother shot at most who did, she probably would have had them asking her out nearly every day.

"So let me get this straight, you wanted to come early just so that you can fight some newbie trainers. Do you have any shame?"

"Hey if you remember correctly that kid challenged me," Jake shot back at his sister. "Besides, I was looking for some of the more veteran trainers. After all that time up in Sinnoh I just want to be able to stretch out a bit back in the warm tropical sun. And what better way to do it than with a Pokémon battle?"

"Okay fine I get the point, but you do realize that 'relaxation' is missing a certain someone that doesn't want to leave your side, right? And she is going to be pretty mad at you for leaving without her this morning."

"Oh don't worry, she'll get over it soon enough. She'll just give the usual puppy dog eyes and move on after complaining a bit. But I have to say; now I know why Dad always complained about the way you and Mom used to use them on him."

"Right, well if you actually got a girlfriend you might get used to them too."

"Oh don't worry; I'm already used to them. Or at least I think I am. Besides with all the traveling that we do it would be hard to really keep a relationship going."

"I think you're just making excuses, Mom and Dad did it and look at how they turned out. And you can't use the reason that there is no girl close enough to you either. I know at least one girl that has shown interest in you, and don't think I haven't seen your reaction to another," Alex teased.

"I don't know what you're talking about," her brother stuttered while looking away from her.

"Of course you don't. So I guess mentioning the name Samantha has no effect on you."

Jake couldn't help but stop slightly as she said that, but he tried to recover without anyone noticing. Too bad they had spent a little too much time together for his twin to miss something like that.

"Like I said, deny it as many times as you want. I know exactly when you're lying. But she would be the one you can't stop thinking of."

"Okay fine, I admit she's not that bad," he finally got out, turning away to hide his beat red face.

"I think we both know that there is more on your mind than just that. I can only wonder why the 'fearless' Jake Ketchum hasn't said anything to her yet. But then again there is also another person who has their mind on…oh hi Anna! Fancy seeing you here."

"Anna! Where?" Jake nearly jumped as he quickly looked around at everyone around them, giving of a sigh of relief once he couldn't see her. "That was not funny."

"And that would be the one who can't stop thinking about you," Alex laughed as her brother grew even redder in the face. But this time it wasn't embarrassment that caused it. "Oh just relax, it's partially your fault anyways."

"My fault? I beat her once in the Indigo League and from that point on she can't stop following me, for five straight years! Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, the Orange Islands; every place we went she was right behind us."

"Please, you're thinking too much into it. I've been watching her every year, and it didn't start out as you think."

"As I think! She's the one who has been stalking me!"

"Not quite," Alex sighed, rubbing her temples. "Why are boys always so stupid when it comes to this?"

"Hey!"

"But then again according to Mom you take after Dad in more than one way," she continued, completely ignoring her brother. "Fine, let me spell it out for you. Anna wasn't stalking you. Well I guess she kinda is now, but it's not for the reasons you're thinking of. After losing to Sarah the day we got to Kanto that year she obviously wanted to prove herself again at the Indigo League, but you beat her before she got too far. Thus _you_ became her target to prove herself instead of Sarah, and because of that she followed you to Johto. You failed to meet up in the Silver League Conference and so, unsatisfied, she followed you to Sinnoh. Finally it was after beating her again in the semi-finals that it seemed to start to change from a desire to prove herself to something akin to simple admiration. It was from that she continued to follow you, even after suffering her second loss and accepting that, for the moment at least, you were the superior trainer. As we traveled through the Orange Islands it grew away from that simple admiration to something a bit more complex. And whether you accept it or not, that is what happened."

"Why do you always seem to know everything when it comes to situations like this?

"Because compared to you, I do."

"Why was I cursed with you as a twin?" Jake grumbled quietly as he sped up towards the stadium.

"Blessed," she corrected him while trying to keep pace. "You meant to ask why you were blessed with me as a twin."

"I hate you…"

* * *

Getting to the stadium, the siblings found an empty row and took their seats along with their Pokémon.

"So how much longer until everyone gets here? The battle should be starting soon," Jake asked while stretching out into the empty row of seats below them.

"Not really sure, because if you remember someone ran out of the house this morning without talking to anyone," Alex stated rather flatly, staring at her brother. "But I have to say that this is quite the turn out, even for the league finals. Then again, considering that she is becoming quite well known I guess it really isn't all that surprising."

"Right…well known." Looking around at the still growing crowd he couldn't help but give a deep sigh.

"Oh come on not this again," Alex groaned. "Remember, you are doing better than Dad did when he started. Top eight in your first tournament, top four in the Indigo League, top sixteen in the Johto League, but then you finally took the championship in Sinnoh. In his first four years Dad never got better than the top two, and even that one stood out from the others. Not to mention that you were able to beat the Orange League and you've almost beaten the Kanto Battle Frontier."

"Yeah I know that, and that's not what I'm annoyed at. Try recalling _her_ ___résumé_."

Alex hesitated slightly. "Second place in the Indigo League, champion of the Johto League, and going for the championship of the Hoenn League."

"Correct, and I still say that she chose to not take first place in the Indigo League and settled with second. Thus she is basically going for her third league title."

"Here we go again," she sighed. "How many times do I have to say it, why would anyone throw away becoming champion?"

"How should I know? Maybe not to get instant notoriety. But I would have bet money on the fact that her Pokémon and strategies were far superior to her opponent's that day, and if there is one thing that I am confident in it's my ability to read a Pokémon. And the other thing that makes me wonder is the fact that whenever I bring it up with either her or Dad they give me a half-hearted answer and try and change the subject."

"Oh just give it up already, either you are just looking into it too much into it or they are just pulling your leg. Besides she won the next one anyways so it really shouldn't matter in the end."

"And it's from that that I sometimes get recognized outside of Hoenn. I don't mind it when people say 'Oh you're his or her son'. But it really bugs me when it's 'Oh you're her older brother'. All of it just because she was able to get into at least the top two in her first two leagues."

"Of course being the daughter of two virtual celebrities had nothing to do with it either," Alex sighed while rolling her eyes. "But you know they have a name for that feeling, it's called Sibling Inferiority Complex. Although it usually deals with the younger sibling feeling that towards an older one," she added with a smirk.

"Oh shut it. Can we just drop the topic already?"

"Fine by me, you were the one who brought it up anyways. Although I still don't know what you're so jealous about. All that aside, most trainers would love to be in your position right now. There aren't that many who have won a regional tournament. Besides, even she can't read Pokémon as well as you can. In fact I think that even Dad can't."

"Like I said drop it," he said at last with a sigh. "I know what you're trying to say. I just want people to recognize me for me. Not due to my sisters, not to my parents, just me."

"Once again, you just have a bad habit of thinking too much into things. Our entire family is well known throughout the country. You can run from it as much as you want but you'll never escape that fact."

"Maybe, but I know how I can at least get a good start to be recognized as myself, a world-class competition that only about 14 people have conquered."

"What are you…oh no. You can't be serious."

"Yep, the Hoenn Battle Frontier."

"Okay Jake, I'll admit; you're good at what you do. In fact, you're really good. But that doesn't mean that you're _that_ good. Every Frontier Brain that Dad chose is a top trainer who has several elite championship titles to their name. And even if you get past the others, he and Paul are easily two of the best trainers in Hoenn. Even Elite Four members can't be sure of beating those two. In fact five of the people that won were either current or former members of one of the regional Elite Fours. It's not like one of your practice battles. Once you step into that ring with Dad it doesn't matter who you are, he'll put you down faster than you can say 'I screwed up'. And you know better than most how powerful Dad actually is."

"But I also know his strategies," he added confidently.

At that point Alex couldn't help but wonder how her brother was able to win as much as he did. "I don't know if you're being confident or just plain stupid. Sure, you know his favorite ones at least, but he knows yours as well. You really have to start thinking these things through; rushing into a battle like that without considering everything beforehand is near suicide. Even if we give you the extreme benefit of the doubt and say that'll put you on even grounds in that sense, do you really think that your Pokémon can match his in speed or power?"

Jake opened his mouth to respond, but couldn't really come up with much of a comeback. "Well that doesn't mean that we can't try."

"No it doesn't, but you need to know your limits. Dad didn't become as good as he is overnight. Even after five years you're as reckless as always. Let's just hope that you won't do this when Hannah starts her own journey."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well we've already proven that Sarah and I have inherited Mom and Dad's skill, so I guess the talent skips a generation for the Ketchum men."

Jake was about to yell back at her but a quick nudge from Umbreon made him stop.

"What's the matter? Can't find a good comeback?"

"Now Alex, I thought that you two were trying to fix the fighting problem."

Alex quickly stiffed at the sound of the almost too sweet voice. Looking over at Jake she saw him quickly stick his tongue out at her before ending with a cocky smile. Neither needed to turn around to know who that voice belonged to.

"Sorry Mom," she finally said.

"Yeah it's alright Mom," Jake continued. "Alex just got done saying how much better I am as a trainer than she is."

"Wait, what?" Alex could barely believe her ears, or her eyes. Unlike how he was just a minute ago, her brother was as cocky as he usually was and there was never even a sign that he had ever been depressed. "Are you saying that you…all that talk about Sarah and you…"

"Oh that? I let that all go quite a while ago."

While it was of course a complete lie, he just couldn't resist seeing his older sister squirm a bit.

"You mean…I actually felt pity for you and then… "Alex's face was flushed red with rage as she began to yell, the fact their mother was right next to her didn't even matter at that point. "You little prick! I'm going to freakin' murder you!"

Just as Alex was about to jump at her brother a light blue glow surrounded her and she stopped nearly in mid-air. Looking down she saw an all too familiar pink four-legged Pokémon whose forehead gem and body where glowing the exact same color as Alex step right from behind her mother.

"Thank you Espeon. Now Alex you're just lucky that you're father isn't here," May told her in a calm voice as her daughter still stood completely motionless. "I seriously doubt that you would get off easy after hearing that."

Even if her master wasn't in a very good situation at the moment, Alex's own Espeon didn't even try to make a move against the other Pokémon. Not only because it was her mother and her mother's trainer who were responsible for the event, but even if May didn't do as much in the contest ring as she used to, the power of her Pokémon was undeniable. Even though she still classified herself as a coordinator, the mother of four could give even top trainers a run for their money. In fact her and Ash had a bet going for a couple years as to who could do each other's job better. While neither will ever openly tell what the wager was, it wound up as a tie at one championship title each. Ash continued on to win one more Grand Festival after that but May decided to go back to coordinating.

"I think you can let go of her now Espeon," May told her Pokémon after a little while.

As the blue nimbus vanished, Alex had to take a half-step to steady herself before sitting back down without a word. She didn't even glance over at her brother who she knew was still sporting a large grin at that point.

"Oh and Jake," May calmly stated without looking over at him. "If you don't wipe that smirk off your face right now you'll be in even bigger trouble. Don't think that I'm going to be putting everything on Alex. I will be having a talk with both of you after the battle, if you are going to act like you're five years old I can easily treat you like you are five years old."

Jake was quick to comply as he sat back in his chair. While their mom was slow to anger she could be just as bad as their dad when it came to punishment.

"For now we can leave your father out of it. I don't doubt that you sometimes act like this while we are not around, but as long as you're with us you're under our rules. But even still, you don't say things like that to your brother, and before you say anything Jake you're just as much at fault because you incited it. Now let's just forget this for the time being, we're here to watch the battle after all."

After a few minutes of silence, from both human and Pokémon, Jake finally spoke up. "So when is everyone supposed to be here?"

"Well your grandparents and uncle might not make it in time for the start of the battle, but as for your father and…"

"Big brother!"

Turning around just in time, a small girl virtually jumped into Jake's arms and hugged him tightly. She was rather young, only about five years old, but her shoulder length brown hair and dark brown eyes shown just as well as her older sisters'. The young girl was only wearing a pure white sleeveless summer dress with two white ribbons with a blue accent at each of the ends, one around her waist and another tying most of her hair back into pony-tail leaving only a couple bangs on each side framing her face; her wide-brimmed matching hat with a blue ribbon tied around the cap portion had fallen off while leaping into the boy's arms.

"I was just asking about you Squirt," Jake teased as he stood up and spun her around a couple times before just holding her in his arms. Of course she was holding onto her brother with a big smile on her face and had her head resting on his shoulder. But it wasn't long before she remembered a little problem.

"Big Brother why did you leave without us?" The girl pouted, looking up with the most heart melting puppy-dog eyes that one could imagine. "I wanted to go with you to the stadium."

"And with that I definitely know why Dad fears those eyes so much," Jake chuckled. "Sorry Kiddo, but Alex and I kinda wanted to get here early. You weren't even awake by the time we left."

"Yeah, cause you wanted to challenge a few people before the match started," his twin sighed.

Looking over as if she had just noticed them, the young girl's smile grew once again.

"Hi Mommy! Hi Alex!" She waved over at the other two there.

"Oh come on Hannah, why do you always go to Jake?" Alex complained as her father showed up with Raichu close behind, bringing her younger sister's hat along with him. "I'm just as much your older sibling as he is."

"Cause Big Brother is better," she simply responded, hugging him tightly again.

"See, yet another person who agrees with me," Jake grinned. "Now why can't all my sisters be like you?" He asked while playing with her hair a bit, earning a small giggle in response.

"Heh, over my dead body," Alex mumbled before looking back at her father and giving him a hug. "Hey Dad," but as she said that she noticed something was missing. "Where's Ninetales?"

"She's a little big to bring into the stadium, so knowing her she's probably moping about around the house right now," he replied while returning the embrace. "But how about you two? Enjoying your time off in between leagues? You've been spending most of it back here in Hoenn so you must still fell a little homesick."

"No…well, not entirely at least. For some reason Jake has insisted on training in Sinnoh the last few months after his loss to Brandon so he can demand a rematch. And I don't care what Mrs. Oak will ever say, living up in that freezer of a place is physically impossible."

"Yeah but there's no way she'll agree with that statement. Though you do realize that you didn't need to continue following him right?" Ash asked with a knowing smile on his face. "While your mother may disagree, you're both more than old enough to go off by yourselves if you wanted to. Just because he wants to go to Sinnoh doesn't mean you have to as well."

"Um…well I….that is…" She stuttered while looking away a bit, a light blush forming across her face. "Sure I could do it just fine but he wouldn't last two days without me. He can't cook, do laundry, he has absolutely no sense of direction, heck it seems he can barely get dressed at times…"

"Alright, alright, I get the picture," Ash interrupted her with a small chuckle. "I'm not forcing you to do anything; I just gave you an option." Turning back to his other two children, Ash just shook his head at seeing his youngest daughter continue to cuddle up against her brother. "Hannah I think Jake would probably like to be able to sit down, so you can let go of him now. It's not like he's going anywhere anytime soon."

"Awww, do I hafta?" The girl asked, carefully tightening her grip on her brother.

"No that's okay," Jake told her while shifting the way he was holding her slightly. A moment later he sat back down in his seat with Hannah sitting right on his lap and his Umbreon was already up onto a neighboring seat to great the newcomer.

"Hehe, hi Umbreon," Hannah giggled as the Pokémon cuddled up next to her.

"I swear, at times it seems as though in her mind I don't even exist at times," Alex sighed as she took her own seat next to Jake again. "I'm just as much her sibling as him or Sarah, but he is the one she likes the most while Sarah is next and I seem as nothing more than distant relative."

"Somebody's jealous," her brother chimed in with a sing-song voice.

"Now who would ever be jealous of you?"

"Okay you two, enough," their father interrupted them. "Sarah's battle will start soon and your grandparents and uncle will be here in just a little bit. I know you have been getting better at it but the usual rules will apply for a family get-together, zero tolerance. Got it?"

"Yes Dad," the twins simultaneously responded, a slight annoyance on their voice.

"Daddy do you think that Sarah will win?" Hannah asked, looking up from petting Umbreon.

"I think that she should have a pretty good chance," he told his daughter while taking a seat of his own. "But how about you two?" He asked, looking at the twins. "With your current skill level, predicting something like this shouldn't be too hard. And I know you've both been watching the battles so far."

"Sarah will win, hands down," Alex stated confidently. "If I remember correctly her opponent likes to use Pokémon who are quick but hit hard. Knowing Sarah, she probably knows her opponent better than he knows himself at this point. So I would say she'll start with Aggron, not very fast but large offensive and defensive power, pretty much the tank of her team, and most of the rest of her team probably follows that pattern."

"Alright, Alex says that Sarah will win by starting with Aggron," Ash restated. "Jake? What do you think?"

"Oh she has most of it right, but she's thinking about it from the wrong angle," he smirked. "I also think that Sarah will win, and I agree that she probably has her opponent pretty much memorized by now, but I don't think that she'll follow that strategy."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Alex shot back. "If she knows what her opponent likes to use why not go for the perfect counter? Make it as quick and easy a win as possible."

"Because she wouldn't find that too fun, remember her battle style isn't like either of ours. She'll strategize when she has to but I don't think she cares enough about this champion title to go with a strategy she won't enjoy as much."

"Here we go again with your whole 'she purposefully lost her first league' idea again. Why wouldn't she want to go for the title? I mean she went all out in the Silver League Championship."

"I'm not the one you should be asking that to, even if I personally don't think she actually went all out in that battle. And from what I can tell so far, she's coasting through this one as well just wanting to enjoy the competition itself. If I had to give an answer though, I'd say part of it is because she's almost too confident in her skills," Jake said while looking back down at the field where the staff was just starting to clear out. "Of course she can back up that confidence when she wants to, but for the most part she just wants to have fun with it all. And on a slightly more sadistic side, one of her favorite ways of having fun is to challenge herself by beating her opponents with a strategy or typing similar to theirs. It's not all that efficient but it can really show whose Pokémon really are better and creates an uphill battle for both trainers in the process. You of all people should know that one."

"Well, yeah but, I wouldn't think that she would do something like that in a championship match."

"If for some reason she is motivated enough, I have no reason to doubt that your version will happen. But my bet is on the fact that she'll probably start with Infernape and stick with a combination of speed and power. Sarah was the only one of us to not only master Dad's Adjustment System but expand on it along with Raichu's stances. She's done entire battles without even directly saying an attack name. And with Eevee to relay her other Pokémon's input mid-battle, I doubt her opponent will be able to keep up. As usual, I feel real sorry for whoever goes up against her."

"I can't deny that one," Alex stated flatly. "I wonder if she even realizes the mental effect she has on other trainers when she goes at them with their own strategy? Or how she never seems surprised or worried about anything her opponent does. I've seen the effects it can have, along with the added effect of an opponent who sees the Adjustment System or a similar idea for the first time. A trainer's mind is far easier to break than most people think, and without a trainer who can think straight the Pokémon falls pretty quickly as well. Very useful, but not many trainers either realize it or can use it properly. Not to mention some consider it an unfair tactic."

"She may only be twelve but sadly I wouldn't be surprised if she actually did know it. Dad trained her almost too well while we were gone."

"Yep."

"Big Brother what are you and Alex talking about?" Hannah asked, looking up at the teen.

"Nothing you need to worry about Kiddo, just promise me that you won't grow up to be as weird as your sisters."

"You do know that I'm sitting right next to you right?" Alex growled back at him.

"Yep! I'll grow up to be just like Big Brother and Daddy!" The youngster beamed, grabbing onto Jake again. "So is Sarah going to win Big Brother?"

"If she wants to she will."

"Is she stronger than Big Brother?"

"That's kinda hard to answer. My Pokémon are more powerful but I would probably lose to her every time."

"Huh? How can you lose if you're stronger?"

"Because," Alex interrupted. "While most of her Pokémon aren't overly strong, the way she battles with them are almost at the level of Mom and Dad."

The poor girl still just stared right at her older sister, still not entirely understanding her.

"Think of it this way Kiddo," Jake started. "If Dad used a Pokémon that he had just caught, would he be beaten easily?"

"Of course not! Nobody can beat Daddy!"

The entire family couldn't help let out a small laugh at the young Ketchum's comment.

"Not exactly why, but close enough for now."

"So what do you think will happen Dad?" Alex asked.

"Oh I think that I'll keep that to myself," their father said with a grin. "I talked with Sarah just before we got here so it wouldn't be fair if I spoiled it. But you two have definitely gotten better over the years; both of your ideas were spot on for her."

Jake was going to interject once more but the whole crowd started to calm down as the announcer's voice rang out over the loudspeaker.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, if we could have your attention please. The championship battle of the Hoenn Pokémon League is about to start. Our first combatant has come a long way to compete here, but already has many tournaments under his belt with several of them ranking in the top two. We'll just have to see if he can take home his first championship trophy. Hailing from the land of Johto, and today's green trainer, Andrew Warren!"

The cheering started suddenly as the blonde haired teenager walked out onto battlefield. Waving both hands to the crowd as he approached his spot on the field, the noise died down as the announcer began talking again.

"And our red trainer today is a young girl who, while in only her third tournament, has already taken second and first place in her previous leagues. If you don't recognize her name from her own raising fame you almost definitely know that of the rest of her family. Champions and celebrities, they hold most of the titles that can be earned in the surrounding regions and even some from beyond. Including; Petalburg Gym Leader, Contest Judge, and even the Area Master himself. Two of those family members are even idolized by nearly every young trainer in Hoenn. Today she will see if she can add yet another victory to that long list. Let me introduce you to Sarah Ketchum!"

* * *

And with that I would bet the number one question most people had from my last one was answered. Thanks for reading, as always I'll be trying to keep a consistent update schedule of every couple days.


	2. Let the Battle Commence

Time for the start of the second chapter. It, like the last one, is a bit longer than what I like to keep as the average length for my chapters but not much I can do when there isn't a good place to split it up. Thank you to those that took the time to review the last chapter, it was much appreciated.

* * *

"So Eevee who do you think he'll start with?"

"Vee eevee."

"Really? I was going to say Typhlosion."

"Vee," the small Pokémon shook her head.

The dark-haired pre-teen was leaning up against the wall in a hallway leading from the trainer's prep area to the battlefield, waiting for her name to be called. Wearing a mid-thigh length dark blue dress covered by a white jacket that reached all the way down to her ankles it was almost as if she was overdressed for the warm region, but the jacket was actually designed to help with the sun and heat. Accented with dark blue pads above the shoulders and gold colored trim along them as well as the garment itself, the high collared jacket tapered at her wait before flowing outwards revealing the soft dark blue material inside. At her waist beneath it was a gold colored belt from which two thin bags of the same color hung along her thighs. While traveling between cities she also usually carried a matching backpack along with these but it was just that much easier to leave it behind while she was within a city. Finishing the outfit off with dark blue fingerless gloves, a small golden hair ribbon to hold back some of her hair from her face, and a gold necklace with a small Pokéball hanging from it, the girl gave off a sense of someone much older than twelve, almost thirteen, year old girl she actually was. Sitting comfortably on her shoulder was a usually energetic Eevee who had a dark blue ribbon of her own tied to her left ear, but she was currently relaxing while watching her trainer and best friend play with a miniaturized Pokéball in one hand. The girl was solidly built from all the traveling she had done, but pretty much anyone would agree that she was turning into quite the young lady.

"You always seem so confident about it, and somehow you are usually right too," the young girl sighed. "Well looks like I won't be starting with him then, we'd have too much of an advantage. Sorry buddy but you'll just have to wait until later in the fight."

Putting the ball back onto its holder on her belt, she grabbed another one after feeling around a little.

"In that case we go with the old standby," she said with a smile.

Turning her attention back to her traveling companion, the Evolution Pokémon cooed slightly as her trainer began to rub between her ears.

"Guess everyone will be watching again huh?"

"Vui."

"But this time it's different. In Johto nobody really knew us. Sure there were a few people that either recognized our last name or followed the Indigo League but it's nothing like here. Most trainers in Hoenn recognize the name Ketchum in one form or another. Depending on who you ask it'll either strike fear or awe into them, although I don't think it was always Dad's idea for the former. But because of this I made sure to bring a little help just in case."

As the dull sound of the crowd quieted down she could start to hear the announcer's speech. After a little wait she finally heard him start in on her introduction.

"Guess that's our cue," she said while starting to walk to the entrance. "As always I'll be counting on you too."

"Vee!" The small creature nodded with a happy smile on her face. Of course she couldn't resist cuddling up against her trainer as well.

"Hey, cut it out," the girl laughed. "That tickles! Come on, we have to get going."

"Sarah Ketchum!"

Walking out the door the sudden bright light of the sun surprised her a bit but the cheering crowd was unmistakable. Putting on her usual smile that she had on for all her battles, the young Ketchum walked up to her spot on the field. Looking around the packed stadium she quickly found her family in one of the reserved sections. She couldn't hold back a laugh as she saw Jake and Hannah almost going crazy with the cheering.

"So you're the one who's been hailed as a prodigy of her time huh? One of three daughters of two well known trainers and skilled in several different types of elite strategies belonging to some of the top trainers in the league, even as young as you are that is quite the feat. You've even apparently gained the nickname 'demon' for the way you battle. Although considering all the rumors, you don't look nearly as tough as I imagined."

Turing her attention back to the field, it was apparently her opponent who made those comments. A confident smile clearly on his face.

"I think you have the wrong person, I'm just a normal trainer like you and everyone else out there," Sarah told him without even missing a beat, flashing an innocent smile of her own. "But I think I should warn you right now, don't always believe what your eyes tell you. Otherwise it'll just put you in more trouble than you can imagine, because down here in Hoenn, demons really do exist."

"_I still don't know how he did it but I seriously want to kill Jake for spreading that name…"_

_

* * *

_

Even though his opponent's face didn't change one bit as she talked to him, Andrew could easily tell the confidence just seething from her words. And that alone made him give pause. But shaking his head he tried to put that behind him.

"_Maybe taunting wasn't the best way to start,"_ he thought to himself. _"No matter, she's just another trainer in front of me now. I'll beat her just like all the others."_

Of course, that being said, he still couldn't picture the so called 'demon prodigy' looking as innocent and carefree as the person standing before him.

"Alright Ladies and Gentlemen, we would like to welcome you all to the championship battle of the Hoenn Pokémon League. Now with our two trainers on the field we would like to remind everyone of the rules of this battle. It is a six-on-six battle with substitutions for both sides allowed only after a Pokémon has fainted. If you would please turn your attention to the primary screen we will now determine who will start this final battle."

As the announcer finished his words the portrait of each trainer appeared on each side of the giant television with their appropriate color as a background. In the center of the display a circle, sectioned off into eight pieces of alternating green and red colors, began to spin. As the movement slowed the indicator eventually stopped on green.

"And there you go people, green trainer would you select your first Pokémon please."

"Looks like I don't have a choice," Andrew muttered while grabbing a ball from his waist. "Swellow, time for battle!"

With a sharp cry the native blue and red bird shot out of its Pokéball. Circling around the stadium a couple times it came back down to the field, hovering just above the grass.

"Damn," Sarah laughed as she saw the Pokémon emerge from its ball. "You were right again Eevee, as always." Revealing the Pokéball that she had in her hand, the brunette expanded it and tossed it onto the field. "Of course that just means I'll still be using him."

In a flash of light a brown simian Pokémon appeared as ball bounced back towards its owner. While it wasn't a Hoenn native, the Pokémon has been with his owner longer than all but her Eevee. Unlike his trainer though he was quite stoic, a trait he took from his father. Staring right at his opponent, no emotion except a small excited smile came to his face as his tail randomly twitched back and forth.

As soon as the Pokémon appeared, Eevee could just barely make out one of the many voices from the stadium call out "Ha! I told you so!" It didn't take her long to recognize the voice, and after a quick laugh decided to tell her partner about it after the battle was over.

"Um, are you sure you want to choose that one?" Her opponent asked, quite confused with the young girls choice. "I want to win an all, but I can't shake the feeling you're basically handing me the victory. My Swellow isn't one to be taken lightly."

"Guess I am aren't I?" Sarah asked with her usual innocent smile. "Oh well, can't take it back now. But you really should remember my suggestion. Either way, I hope you don't mind me taking the first move. Infernape, start with Light Stance 5, adjust to A64, B9, F72. Prepare for class two high-speed combat."

Changing his pose only slightly, the simian Pokémon almost seemed to sway on his two feet as his smile began to grow in anticipation.

After hearing the list of commands, Andrew made sure to take an extra second before deciding on his next move. He had heard stories of these odd instructions, yet had only personally seen her use it limited times in the current tournament. And even when he did see them, he couldn't understand them anyways. But according to the rumors each was based off of the opponent's Pokémon somehow, and he made sure that he had a secret weapon to try and surprise her. Of course the battle now took preference.

"Swellow use Aerial Ace!"

As soon the words left his mouth, Sarah's smile just grew. "Chance of starting with Aerial Ace against a fast Pokémon with a type disadvantage, 94%. The more confident they are the easier they are to predict. Now for the attack direction…"

Watching carefully at the Swellow's tail feathers right before it disappeared, she had her answer.

"Infernape, five 'o'clock, D97."

Without a moment's hesitation, or even looking behind himself, the simian Pokémon ducked his right shoulder down just enough for the Flying-Type, who appeared right behind him, to come shooting across. Missing literally by only a few hairs.

"What the…again!"

Gaining altitude, Swellow once again disappeared from sight before it even started to dive back down.

"Seven 'o' clock, D64."

As the bird appeared right behind him again, Infernape calmly took a step off to his side as the blue blur shot past him once again. All the while his trainer never even batted an eye while closely watching it take off back into the air.

"Again!"

"Six 'o' clock, D50."

Jumping straight into the air the Sinnoh starter was still as relaxed as when the battle began, almost as if for him he was still waiting for it to start.

"Now!"

"Three 'o' clock, P84, N27."

Before he even touched back down to ground, Infernape's opponent was again out of sight. Touching down on his right foot and shifting his weight with practiced ease, the Fire-Type began to pivot onto his left foot and turn just as his opponent became visible off his right side, diving straight through where Infernape just was. But as the flying Pokémon shot past, Infernape, who was still in the process of turning, revealed a sparking left fist coming straight along the path Swellow was taking. As his attack continued toward his target, the electricity that just started with a few sparks turned into a torrent of lightning bolts arcing from his entire fore-arm.

The whole moment of attack and counter-attack took less than a second, but only moments after the effects were quite obvious. Just coming out of his punch Infernape could tell that he missed by just a hair. But even if he missed hitting it, the arcing electricity alone had a rather damaging effect. The bird Pokémon was struggling to its feet just a few meters from where the Fire-Type was standing. Several electrical burns were apparent across its feathers but most of the damage was from the temporary paralysis effects of the massive voltage running through its body on its way from the original attack to the ground.

"Hmm, I didn't expect for you to dodge that," Sarah pondered slightly as the Swellow made it to its feet and began to stretch its wings, feeling the effects of the paralysis wearing off. "Guess it wasn't ever pushed to its limits before, or we just need to react faster next time." Shrugging it off, she just made a mental note of the angles involved and turned her attention back to the battle.

"Is dodging an Aerial Ace even possible?" Andrew stood stupefied while his Pokémon took flight again. "At the speed it should be unavoidable. And it wasn't even just once, but four times in a row? I've never heard of anything like it." Growling slightly, he couldn't help but feel the irritation rise within him. "We should have been able to finish with the first shot alone."

"You're right, one direct hit from that attack and we'd be out. And one good hit from us would put you out as well. That's what makes this even more exciting, don't 'cha think? But if you're that surprised by something as simple as this, you apparently haven't seen the true high class trainers at work, have you?"

Turning his attention back to Sarah, he was already starting to get annoyed by the constant smile that graced her lips.

"Even still, I think it would be boring if you just finished this like you always do, don't you? Infernape, let's take it up to the next notch."

"Huh?"

"Pot of Fire! Pot of Thunder!"

As his master called out the command the Pokémon pulled out a few of the stops. From his right arm an eruption of flame burst out and covered his entire fore-arm, flowing back creating a spout of flame extending off of his elbow. From his left arm, the arcing electricity returned in a vibrant flash of light, once again covering his entire fore-arm in the white hot electrons.

"You see, unlike his father who is quite proficient with both ranged and physical attacks, my Infernape prefers close range. And I hope you don't make the mistake of thinking of this as any normal attack. Infernape, Mach Punch!"

With both his arms exuding massive amounts of energy the simian leapt forward with surprising speed, right for his opponent.

"Swellow gain some altitude, now!"

Feverously flapping its wings the bird took off into the air just moments before a fire-charged fist came smashing down, instantly incinerating a large area of grass around him.

"You shouldn't have told me your weakness, after all that boasting I still have the advantage." While he tried to back up his words the intimidating look of the flames and lightning pouring off of his opponent's Pokémon couldn't be ignored. "Swellow, Hyper Beam!"

"D322, angle 70 degrees."

Taking only a moment to charge up, Swellow launched its attack at the land-bound target. But with the time it took for the beam to come back down the earth, Infernape was able to dodge it effortlessly.

"Oh stop the little charade," Sarah sighed as the bird was recharging its strength. "We both know that Swellow in general have essentially no real effective ranged attacks. And anything that you do send down we can dodge easily."

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Andrew knew she was right. Ideally they should have already knocked out their opponent by this time, not have to rely on ranged attacks. And if he had to keep this up, it would just be his loss in the end when Swellow ran out of energy from all the Hyper Beams. Churning through every attack in his arsenal he could think of only one that might have a good enough effect, but he needed to get in close again. He only needed one clean hit to win.

"Then let's put that confidence of yours to the test," he called out. "Swellow Double Team and then come down with Aerial Ace into your best Double-Edge!"

Nodding and letting out a shrill cry, Swellow banked straight up and began rotating as a number of other Swellow began splitting off around it until there were a total of nine that appeared to be doing an aerial acrobatics display as they all simultaneously turned around and started dive bombing back down to their target.

"Hold your ground Infernape and wait for my signal," Sarah ordered him. Watching each bird carefully she knew that numbers really meant nothing here, she just had to find that one piece. Right as they neared a few meters above the ground and began to disappear into the Aerial Ace, she found it.

"Infernape, two 'o' clock! N42!"

Taking a small jump backwards, the simian Pokémon found himself instantly surrounded by the enemy. But he had his orders, and took a straight left jab at the image he was told. Unable to change its course in time, the Flying-Type could only watch as the attack literally hit it head on.

The attack produced an instant effect as the waves of electricity flowed right into the Pokémon who sped directly into his fist while the copies flew harmlessly through the Fire-Type's body.

Without even a sound, Swellow fell to the ground; its body twitching slightly from the intense voltage while electrical burns and the smell of ozone permeated from his body.

"Swellow is unable to continue!" The announcer called out over the speakers. "Infernape is the winner!"

The image of Swellow darkened on the main screen as his trainer recalled the Pokémon.

"I guess I did underestimate her," Andrew said quietly, a bit of resentment in his voice. "To think that she could still figure out the real one from that many copies, was it luck or something else? Whichever one it was, I won't make the same mistake twice. Ampharos, go!"

* * *

"I hope we didn't miss too much."

Looking up from the battle, the various members of the Ketchum family saw the familiar faces of May's parents and brother descend the stairs towards them.

"Grandma! Grandpa! Uncle Max!" Hannah cheered from her spot on Jake's lap. "You made it!"

"Hi Hannah," Caroline said picking up her granddaughter from her spot. "Have you been a good girl for your parents and siblings?"

"Uh huh," the small girl happily nodded.

After saying hello to everyone there they all took a seat, much to Umbreon's annoyance because he had to give up his place to Max. He took a spot on the ground next his father who was keeping his constant watch on Hannah, just as he had done with Sarah, Jake, and Alex before her. Shifting slightly to give the Dark-Type some more room, Raichu still made sure to stay next to all three Ketchum children there. Smiling at seeing the same dedication towards Jake as he did to his own trainer, Raichu was happy with the way Jake raised him, and was quite proud with both of them.

"So it seems that Sarah is taking a good lead right off the bat," Max stated looking at the scoreboard. "If she is starting with Infernape it's not all that surprising. I know firsthand how powerful that thing is. It was kinda embarrassing that my 12 year old niece was able to use it to beat my Gallade without too much apparent effort. But that strategy she used on me could have only came from one place," he finished while staring right at his brother-in-law.

Catching his glare, Ash quickly looked away. "What? It's not entirely my fault she beat you."

"She's your daughter, and knowing you it makes perfect sense to put a lot of blame on a certain person," he said holding back a grin at Ash's reaction.

"You people always blame me for that stuff, I mean she's May's daughter too."

"Sorry Dad, but you know Uncle Max is pretty much correct," Alex told him. "While Sarah is good on her own right, one of the main reasons she is this good is because of your strategies. While she may use Mom's as well, most of those are either just for coordinating or based off of yours in the first place."

"Alright, I'll admit that much at least. But in my defense, your average trainer wouldn't be able to comprehend, let alone execute, most of my ideas."

"Don't worry Ash, no matter what the reason we are all proud of these children," Norman interjected as Hannah crawled back into Jake's lap. "Both what they have done, and what they still will do." The last part obviously oriented more towards the happy brunette who was once again hugging her brother. "But for now we should be cheering on the one who is battling to prove her own prowess."

* * *

As the light of the opening Pokéball faded the yellow bipedal Pokémon began to take shape. While it almost looked comical with the flipper-like arms, oddly shaped ears, and red ball tipped tail, they all hid the large amount of electricity that the Pokémon commanded. But even with the new opponent in front of him, Infernape just stared right at it, ready for the next battle.

"Alright Ampharos, light this place up with a Thunderbolt!"

"Infernape, Heavy Stance 4, Pot of Fire!"

As Ampharos began to charge and fire his attack, Infernape simply held out his right arm while bracing it with his left as flames began to spout from the extended arm.

"Not even going to dodge?" Andrew called out. "Ampharos isn't like Swellow; you'll need more than that to stop this. Fire!"

With a quick cry the Electric-Type launched the potent attack right at its opponent. But at the same time the fire that was erupting from Infernape's began to change color from the iconic red and orange to a deep blue and white around his opened hand. Intercepting the bolt of lightning with his outstretched hand, the simian Pokémon flinched slightly as the attack hit him head on.

Andrew had to force himself from celebrating on the direct hit; he no longer could take anything for granted after she beat Swellow without much effort. And his caution was well placed, what first looked like an effective hit turned out to be quite deceiving.

"Ampharos enough!"

As the Thunderbolt hit the intense flames the electricity trailed off along the sides of the fire and hit harmlessly around Infernape.

"Ape Infernape."

"Eevee vee vee."

"So still not enough huh?" Sarah asked herself going over the strike and counter-strike in her mind. "Needing to utilize Pot of Fire to cause an air lance takes too much energy and still makes it unpractical; especially with the fires not hot enough yet. He at least seemed to notice the effects, but he looks like the type to figure out the truth eventually. Let's just hope a bluff will last long enough to gain an edge."

"_Okay what the heck was that?"_ Andrew thought as he too tried to go over what just happened in his head.

"That would be what my dad calls an air lance," his opponent interrupted his thoughts, still sporting her confident smile. "You looked a little confused so I figured that you would like an explanation as to what you saw. By superheating the air around himself Infernape can diffract electricity rather easily. You'll need more than a simple Thunderbolt to beat us."

Groaning a bit, Andrew suddenly became rather annoyed by his pick of Pokémon.

"Is there anything you don't have counter for? Never mind, I get the feeling I don't even want to know. Ampharos, Cotton Spore!"

Opening its mouth the Light Pokémon released countless white fluffy cotton balls, which slowly began to fill the entire battlefield.

Raising her eyebrow at the curious attack, Sarah hesitated only momentarily before issuing her own.

"Light them all aflame! Ember!"

With a deep breath Infernape unleashed his own attack, sending just as many small balls of flame toward each cotton ball. In seconds the air surrounding the battlefield exploded into a ball of fire as the cotton burst into flame. But as fast as the flames appeared they left just as quick as the cotton was burned away, revealing Ampharos virtually next to Infernape with one of his own fists glowing a bright white color.

"Block it Infernape! Counter, P74!"

Deflecting his opponent's attack with his right hand, Infernape's left hand came just as fast, glowing yellow with a few small arcs dancing on it. Even though it hit its target dead on it was quite obvious the damage wasn't as severe as one would expect. But the force from the strike alone was enough to push the Electric-Type back.

"Ampharos, Thunderbolt!"

"D26!"

Sliding to a stop, the Light Pokémon quickly charged and launched his attack. To Andrew's delight, he saw his opponent dodge the oncoming attack instead of deflecting it like before.

"_Like I thought, he's trying to figure it out and will probably soon call our bluff,"_ Sarah thought to herself as she tried to continue calculating out as many moves ahead as she could. _"Infernape still needs practice with that move so it's no longer an option. Sorry old friend but with him figuring that out we don't have much of a choice."_

"Alright Infernape, time for the fireworks. Pot of Fire! Pot of Thunder! Light Stance 13, Raika!"

Giving a small nod, the Fire-Type closed his eyes momentarily before the massive flames and lightning began pouring off his arms again, nearly twice the size of the last attack. Hunching down slightly, he sprung straight at his opponent.

"What the? Ampharos don't let it hit you!"

But the simian Pokémon's speed was faster than earlier and easily caught the Electric-Type with his left hand before it could do anything.

Wincing in slight pain, Ampharos quickly put on a defiant look as the electricity pouring off the fist was barely even having an effect.

"Ampharos!"

Of course looking up at the intense unblinking stare of his opponent, he found Infernape already balancing on that one hand bringing his right foot around making contact with his opponent's head, causing Ampharos to hit the ground hard and even bounce slightly from recoil.

"Ampharos roll away!"

Unable to even open his eyes to know why, the Pokémon followed his trainer's command just as Infernape's right fist hit the ground sending a gout of flame soaring into the sky.

"You okay Ampharos?" Andrew called out, caught off guard by the sudden attacks.

"Ampharos," the Pokémon nodded, weakly getting to his feet.

"Infernape, N710!"

Before the first one died down, another pillar of fire shot out from the raging flames right towards Ampharos.

"Quickly, use Light Screen!"

Just before the fires hit, Ampharos crossed his arms across his chest erecting the intangible barrier just as the flames hit. Although it started to divert the attack around him, the barrier quickly began to distort and crack. Yet even before the attack started to die down, the Light Screen shattered. While the majority of the force was resisted, a powerful blast still pushed on through and sent the Electric-Type flying back searing much of his body in the process.

As fast as the attack came, it died down, revealing Infernape in the center of the field, right fist still extended and breathing heavily. For him, his vision was starting to get blurry. But after shaking it off he looked back at his trainer, who was still sporting her usual confident smile. Even though most would take that the wrong way after seeing the condition the Fire-Type was in, after being with her for nearly three years he knew that she wasn't one to try and show anything but that smile to her opponent. But looking over at Eevee he could see the real feelings that Sarah was experiencing at that moment, and the worry was easily evident on the small Pokémon's face. This attack always drained him but he did currently have the disadvantage as a physical specialized combatant against a ranged specialist. Even still, just like his trainer, he put a confident smirk on his face while trying to ignore the sleep that was trying to overtake him. A battle he wasn't guaranteed to win, who could ask for a better fight?

Andrew couldn't help but feel a combination of annoyance and amazement at his opponent's sudden burst in power. He wasn't given much time to wonder about it though. Before the air was even cool again from the earlier attacks, Sarah was already ordering her next move.

"Infernape, N36. Adjust A62, B93. Move!"

While his speed was still faster than when they first started, it was a noticeable decrease from the last barrage. Not only that, but the flames on his right arm were barely alive while the electricity on his left was virtually non-existent.

"Alright then, counter with Power Gem!"

Concentrating as he put hands nearly together, Ampharos created a white translucent sphere between them and began firing off several pure white pebbles at the oncoming opponent. Barely dodging most of them and getting scraped by the rest, Infernape persevered right up to the Electric-Type, and with his right fist aimed right at the Power Gem attack.

Making contact, the resulting explosion shot both Pokémon back.

"Get up Ampharos!

"Come on Infernape, hang in there!"

After the last attack, both of their bodies were giving way and pure determination was the only thing keeping the two Pokémon going. With both of them getting on all fours, Infernape was the first to make it to his feat, his grin as broad as ever. But as soon as he made it up, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell onto his back out cold, the smile never leaving his face.

"And Infernape is down!" The announcer called out. "With Ampharos back to his feet it looks like the young Ketchum has to change Pokémon this time."

"You did great out there," Sarah whispered to her starter as she returned him to his Pokéball. "You did everything I asked and more, I'll make sure you get a nice long rest at the stadium after this." Looking back at her opponent, whatever pause she gave to her normal smile it was right back. "Not bad, I figured that Infernape could have at least gotten two of your Pokémon down. But I guess we better keep going, Aggron, I choose you!"

Throwing down another Pokéball the giant Steel-Type appeared with a blood-curdling roar. Standing nearly half-again as tall as his trainer, the great beast was one of the many examples of why Pokémon should still be approached with extreme caution. Every aspect of him gave no illusion as to their true function. The horns and steel plates that lined his head and back were far more pronounced than the average Aggron, sticking out nearly an extra full foot away from the creature. His claws alone were nearly twice their normal length and the simple mute grey color betrayed their deadly nature.

"Meet my Aggron, one of my newest Pokémon but he's no less fun to play with than Infernape. Besides, he's quite cute don't 'cha think?"

Leaning down the Iron Armor Pokémon blared yet another shrill roar at Ampharos, spittle clearly dripping from his gaping maw revealing rows of sharp dull-grey teeth.

"Little girl you have the weirdest definition of 'cute' I've ever seen," Andrew nearly stuttered. The new Pokémon easily towered over not only his Pokémon but him as well, and with his vocal entrance combined with the almost primal appearance the trainer felt like he was close to wetting himself. At the very least he could still feel his knees shaking.

"_In his condition Ampharos can't take that beast,"_ The trainer rationalized to himself, trying to regain his composure. _"And I get the feeling that even using a type advantage might not be enough to stop that thing if it goes on a rampage. I didn't want to have to bring out my trump card this early, but by the looks of it I don't have much of a choice."_

"Ampharos return, go Tyranitar!"

Appearing with a similar light as Aggron, another large Rock-Type appeared on the battlefield. Standing just under the opponent's height, the Pokémon let out a cry of its own. While not nearly as physically frightening as the former, the reputation of its species was more than enough for most to back away. It was bipedal as well, covered in a dark green craggy armor and in most aspects seemed quite comparable to its new opponent.

As soon as the new entrant appeared Sarah couldn't help cock an eyebrow at it, but her grin just grew even further.

"Very nice, well you can do the honors of starting if you want," she told the other trainer.

"You'll regret that decision soon enough," Andrew sternly told her while grabbing a pair of goggles and a small flute from his bag. "It'll take more than a bit of luck to beat us. Tyranitar, Sandstorm!"

With a loud roar sand began to pour out from in between the Armor Pokémon's rock hide, slowly building up into massive windstorm of sand.

Lowering the goggles over his eyes, Andrew put on a confident smirk of his own just as his shape was lost to the blowing sands.

Blanketing the entire field, Sarah had to cover her eyes in an effort to keep the sand out. But she wasn't missing much, at that point she could no longer see her opponent or either of their Pokémon, and the yells and cheers from the crowd were barely heard over the howling winds. Before long an eerie and haunting tune began to ring out from the storm, but with the tempest as it was, the music seemed to be coming from all around her at once.

"Quick Eevee get in here, I'm going to need your help for this one!" She yelled, pulling open the collar of her dress as the Evolution Pokémon jumped in. Grabbing a bandana and handkerchief from her pack, she wrapped the bandana loosely around her ears to protect them and held the handkerchief over her nose and mouth. "Aggron! We're switching to Autonomous Relay Tactic One! Good luck!" Turing around so that her back was to the core of the storm, the sounds of the two Pokémon battling was starting to fill the area as well. But while Tyranitar only seemed to be roaring in one short call with two consecutive roars ringing out every now and then, Aggron was calling out almost nonstop.

"Vee vee eevee eve vui vee."

Closing her eyes Sarah tried to calm herself just listening to Eevee relaying Aggron's accounts of the battle along with anything else she could take in. But with the sand blowing as it was, the only thing she could hear clearly outside of her partner and the battling Pokémon was the eerie music. Although the oddest thing about it was that it wasn't formulated like any normal song, as time went on there was no specific portion that repeated itself and thus meant there was no refrain. To virtually any listener the tune just seemed to pierce right through you, a continuous flow of music always changing and never letting up. Yet even with this seemingly small amount of information she was already beginning to create a somewhat detailed mental image of the battle, even if it was a second or two behind what was happening real time.

It took nearly five minutes of fighting, but Sarah was beginning to nod at various points as if agreeing to something.

"Okay I think I have it," she told herself. "He's even better than I thought. This strategy is real good. There's just one last thing I want to do to confirm it and then I think it's time we show him what we are made of, don't you think Eevee?"

"Vee!"

"Aggron!" The young brunette called out over the howling sands. "Hyper Beam! Aim to coordinate C10!"

* * *

I'm not sure if it's because of the amount of times I've read this over for proofreading or simply because I'm a little rusty, but I feel as though these battles could have gone better as they just don't feel up to the same level as my older ones . But on a side note, the description for Sarah's Aggron actually came from an Alternative Art type picture that I found. A lot of those types of pictures give a nice idea to the way that Pokémon really would look like if they were real. Not all of them would be the small cuddly animals that people like to see. Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from you, the next chapter should be up on schedule.


	3. The Demon Awakens

Not much to say except of course thank you to those that reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

On the other side of the field, Andrew was starting to get a little worried. His opponent hadn't said a thing since the battle started, but even still the Aggron seemed to endure his Tyranitar's attacks surprisingly well.

"_That thing's defense is annoyingly good,"_ he thought as he continued to play his flute. _"But as long as she can't see this'll turn out like all of our other battles, complete victory."_

"Hyper Beam! Aim at coordinate C10!"

"_So she finally calls out an attack, huh? Sorry, you'll need more than a few good blind shots to beat us."_

Barely seeing the light from the attack through his goggles, a sudden burst of flying sand and dirt made the trainer flinch, reflexively covering his head with his arms to protect himself.

"_Just as I thought, still not good enough kid. Now it's time…"_

Everything for Andrew stopped as he heard a whistling tune fill the air. But unlike his own melody that he was playing it was more upbeat and had almost a refreshing atmosphere to it.

As soon as the song started he could hear the sounds of combat start up again, along with his Tyranitar giving off the single or double roars that he trained it to do.

"_What the? She couldn't have…"_

Grinding he teeth slightly he took a deep breath before playing his flute once again, trying to drown out that of his opponent's tune.

* * *

When the flute began to play again Sarah stopped her own song.

"Well, looks like I was right," she smiled. "Now to start our counter-offensive."

Concentrating on the music she found herself starting to hum along with each note.

"Aggron break Relay Tactic, block right! Counter with left Iron Claw! Tail incoming left! Focus Punch coming on right, intercept with Iron Defense! Iron Head in two seconds! Tail incoming right! Counter with Iron Tail! Twin Iron Claw after his left Ice Punch! Prepare Iron Defense for Hyper Beam!"

Even on the other side of the field Andrew could just barely hear the commands Sarah was calling out. And yet with every one he could feel a cold sweat build up on him, even within the dry air of the storm. The roars that his Tyranitar was calling out were becoming more and more two successive roars instead of the single ones that had dominated the rest of the fight. He couldn't completely understand why, but he was starting to be pushed back. Changing up his strategy a little he began to play a slightly different tune to try and see if he couldn't confuse Sarah enough take back control of the battle. The Johto native just kept trying to reassure himself that his nobody could decode his strategy and that with it he and Tyranitar were unbeatable.

"Aggron they're switching to a more offensive tactic! Prepare for faster strikes; adjust to A32, B69, and C77! Stone Edge as soon as you see his fist charge up for the Brick Break and straight into Iron Tail! Grab each of his Shadow Claws with an Iron Claw! Now, Iron Head while it can't move!"

A deep thud reverberated through the ground as one of the two giants hit the ground, but from within the blowing sands the roar of pain couldn't be defined as to who it belonged to.

"Use Dragon Claw before it can recover," Sarah yelled out again, knowing exactly who had the upper hand at the moment. "And then Earthquake!"

Now that she had figured out his strategy, and through the continued help of Eevee and Aggron, Sarah could picture the entire battle as clear as day. Even though her Pokémon was outmatched in shear power, his defense was far superior and it was that one aspect that allowed him to survive until this point. Yet if they were outmatched it didn't mean that they had some power of their own.

A loud roar from Aggron rang out from the storm as another small vibration rippled across the soil. But almost directly after, a massive tremor radiated from the battlefield. She knew the attack was coming but even Sarah fell down to her knees as the shockwave passed underneath her. One could almost hear the earth itself ripping apart from the powerful attack. Even the sounds of the audience could once again be heard over the Sandstorm as various parts of the stadium could feel the effects of the Earthquake firsthand. As the shaking finally stopped, a piercing dominant cry from Aggron blared out across the field.

Getting frustrated, Andrew couldn't help but throw hit flute down to the ground and yell out across the field.

"Tyranitar get up! We can't be beaten that easily, we trained too long and too hard for them to trick us like this! We will win this but you need to get up!"

Hearing a weak response from his Pokémon, Andrew almost gave a sigh in relief.

"We finish this now, double Focus Punch!"

"Metal Burst!"

For a moment the two Pokémon went silent, but it was quickly broken as a massive explosion instantly blasted the Sandstorm away, revealing the two Armor Pokémon. Both were struggling back onto all four feet.

Letting out a short snarl, Tyranitar steadied himself back onto his hind legs. Shaking his head several times, the powerful counter attack he just took was still showing its aftereffects.

Digging his claws deep into the soil, Aggron, who was still on all fours, responded with an earsplitting shrill cry of his own. The air itself seemed to undulate from the sheer volume of the call; several of the audience members in the rows closest to the field even had to cover their ears from the sound. Opening his mouth wide as he roared, he made sure to display every one of his sharp teeth in the process; Aggron wasn't one to allow another Rock-Type to claim dominance over him in anything. Even before he was caught by Sarah as an Aron, he was used to being at the top of everything. And this was no exception.

Seemingly undaunted from the damage that it just took, the Iron Armor Pokémon just barely made it back onto his two feet. Digging his toe claws into the ground to compensate for his slight loss of balance, the mighty Steel-Type stood straight and tall, displaying every one of his intimidating metal plates and spikes to his opponent.

"How can that thing still be standing?" Andrew thought out loud. His Tyranitar effortlessly beat several gym leaders by himself back when he was still traveling, yet it was now struggling to beat this one Pokémon. "Tyranitar, one more Brick Break!"

"That won't be necessary."

Looking over at his opponent, Andrew just had to wonder what she was talking about.

"What, are you giving up?"

"I'm not giving anything up," Sarah calmly told him. "But you could never convince me of a reason to attack a Pokémon that can't defend itself."

Looking back at Aggron, it took the trainer a few moments to understand what she was talking about. As threatening as it looked standing in a full battle ready posture with fangs and claws in full view, Aggron was completely out cold, having fainted as soon as he made it too his feet.

"Sorry Aggron, I took a little too long to figure it all out," Sarah apologized to her Pokémon as he was returned to his Pokéball. "Either way you did a great job holding out that long against a much more powerful opponent."

"Vee! Eevee vee vee!"

Crawling out of her shirt as Sarah removed the bandana from her ears, the little Pokémon didn't seem too happy.

"Hey it's not my fault he hasn't used Tyranitar yet in this tournament," she said while shaking her head. "Besides, you know how much I hate substituting real life with videos for observation. They either can never get the angle right or the definition isn't good enough. But I guess in the end not being able to see was just too much of a handicap this time."

Looking back at her opponent, Andrew apparently didn't even seem surprised that she was still sporting her normal, annoying, smile.

"You really should play a happier tune next time you use that strategy seeing as how it relies more on the combination of the notes and their pitches than the actual song. Like for the Crunch, Fire Fang, double Brick Break combo you used right before you changed the tempo. Let's see, getting rid of most of the distracter notes and leaving the commands it should be…"

Bringing two of her fingers up to her lips, Sarah started to whistle a melodic tune that seemed rather soothing to the ears and mind, quite unlike the one that the flute was playing not long ago. As he listened, Andrew's eyes opened wide right up until the last note.

"Hmm, looks like I guessed right," the brunette said with a light giggle. "But I think I was still off slightly on a couple notes. It took me quite a while to decipher it but it's a good strategy. Combined with the mental effects and loss of vision from the Sand Stream, most trainers wouldn't stand a chance against it."

"_We spent four years of development and perfection for that strategy, and she masters it in five minutes? Without even seeing it?"_ Andrew was in such a state of shock he couldn't tell if he should be furious or scared out of his wits by the act. _"She isn't human! Okay just calm down, it was luck. Yeah that's it, nothing but pure luck."_

"So it looks like pure physical force doesn't work well," Sarah interrupted his thoughts while reaching for another Pokéball. "In that case we'll try a coordinated assault instead. Starmie, time to shine!"

Coming out before the ball even hit the ground; the Water-Type was already spinning the star on its back while letting out a light Water Gun from every point the attack created a light mist accentuating its unique prismatic core with fountains of water dancing around it before gracefully landing on the ground.

"You do realize that this is a League Tournament and not the Grand Festival right?" Andrew asked rather flatly, a stark difference to how he felt just moments ago. Even he couldn't understand why he just couldn't keep a single feeling for long while going against this girl. Rage and frustration just didn't seem right when moments later she would look completely innocent and doing something seemingly amateurish. Yet no matter how much of an amateur she looked at times, she currently was, without a doubt, one of the most powerful competitors in the Pokémon League. And he couldn't let himself forget that.

"When you strip away the all the formalities a contest and league battle are basically the exact same thing," Sarah shot back, without the slightest hesitation. "It's nothing more than a slightly different focus. Or are you embarrassed that you might be beaten by a coordinator's Pokémon?"

"Like that would happen, what you did before was nothing but a stroke of luck!"

"Huh? What exactly are you talking about?"

"You know very well what I'm talking about! We'll just have to see how well your Starmie can take our attacks, Sandstorm!"

Still panting hard from the earlier battle, Tyranitar finally calmed himself before giving out a loud cry as he began to whip up the wind and sand again. Seemingly unphased by the attack, Sarah calmly reached down into her pack and pulled out an umbrella.

"Sorry, but I'm kinda bored of not being able to see," she told him while opening the item in her hands. "Sandstorm works best when the air is dry so the blowing winds can carry every grain of sand without effort, but you're in the wrong region if you want to rely on dry weather. Starmie, Rain Dance if you would please."

The Water-Type's central gem flashed a several different colors before staying a solid deep blue. While the sands continued to cover the area around the field, a slight rumbling could be heard as the entire sky slowly filled with dark clouds. Just as Sarah raised the umbrella over her head an earsplitting blast of thunder rang out over the stadium, causing many people in the audience cry out in surprise. Moments later, heavy sheets of rain began to fall upon the stadium in what looked just like a large tropical storm. Absorbing the oncoming water, the sand began to clump together and in no time the Sandstorm was nothing more than a layer of wet sand flowing over the grassy field.

"Now this weather is much more relaxing don't 'cha think?"

* * *

"Ladies and Gentlemen, located under your seats are parkas that will help keep you dry. We recommend that you…"

"They're just a little late for that announcement," Max stated looking out at most of the stadium's visitors who were struggling to put the cheap parkas on. "The way that storm started up, pretty much everyone is soaked to the bone already."

"But not us!" Hannah happily cheered, watching the rain hit just above their heads and roll back behind them. "Thanks Espeon! Thanks Umbreon! Thanks Espeon!"

"Okay, that enough Hannah," Ash quieted down his daughter. "Holding that up for a long time requires them to concentrate and it wouldn't be good if the rain got in after we are still dry would it?"

Sure enough for every Pokémon sitting there with the humans, except for Raichu, their eyes were glowing a light blue creating a translucent psychic barrier around the family, keeping every one of them completely dry. They even shaped the barrier so that most of the rain would flow off to the back and sides, keeping the front clear enough to still see the battle.

"Well…"

"Don't even joke about that one Hannah," Alex quickly said. "I can't even count the number of times Sarah has purposefully caught us in her various weather effects, just because she found it entertaining. I spent months making sure that Espeon could erect this barrier quickly and completely just for that reason."

"Don't listen to her too much Squirt," Jake told his little sister, holding back a laugh. "She just has a few too many bad memories of Sarah messing up her hair for fun. Let's see; she's used water, electricity, wind…"

"Please don't remind me," Alex shuddered. "I know for a fact that she has used moves while in official battles just to get a laugh afterwards or even while she was still battling. She even sacrificed part of one round just to catch us in this type of storm early in the Silver Conference."

"Or you could just learn to accept it and laugh with it like I do. What's wrong with a little practical joke every now and then?"

Receiving nothing more than a death glare from his sister, Jake couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

"Don't worry I know, I know," he tried to calm her down. "Why do you think Umbreon is helping with the barrier?"

"So does that mean I can't play in the rain Big Brother?" Hannah asked looking up at Jake.

"Maybe later Kiddo, right now I don't think it's a good idea anyways," he told her. "But maybe we can go to the beach later after Sarah's battle."

"Yay! The beach!" The young girl cheered. "Can we Mommy? Can we?"

"We'll talk about it later Hannah," May told her. "For now let's just watch Sarah's battle."

* * *

"Ah, the summer storms, one of the many things I always miss when I'm not at home."

Holding a hand out to feel some of the refreshing water, Sarah held her umbrella over her head and was enjoying the drumming rain hitting the material above her. Although looking over at her opponent she could tell that he wasn't enjoying the water nearly as much as she was. "Oh come on, you were ready for the sandstorm so it's only fair that I'm ready for a little rain right?"

Giving off only small grumbles in response, Andrew wasn't happy at all with the turn of events. "Tyranitar, use your Sand Stream, get rid of this rain!"

Giving off a loud roar the Armor Pokémon tried to bring the raging sands back, but as soon as the sand escaped from his body it was engulfed by the water and dropped right down to the ground.

"You're not going to stop it that easily," Sarah calmly informed the drenched trainer. "No matter where you look, water wins against land. While volcanoes may temporarily expand it; the rivers, oceans, and rain just steadily take it right back. And as long as Starmie is there, your Sandstorm is useless."

"Tyranitar, Dragon Pulse!"

"Counter with Thunderbolt."

Forming a light blue orb in his mouth, the annoyed Tyranitar was quick to launch it at his opponent. At the same time Starmie began to rapidly spin the star on its back, and what started as nothing more than a few small sparks turned into a pure bolt of lightning directed right at the oncoming attack. Striking each other in mid-air the two were canceled out effortlessly.

"Charge it with Giga Impact Tyranitar," Andrew called out. If it wasn't the driving rain continuing to pound down on him, it was the idea that she was using the weather just like he had the last round that was grinding on his nerves.

"Use a quick Icy Wind and then up Starmie, use Rapid Spin!"

As the ground rumbled with the Rock-Type charging forward, Starmie aimed the sub-zero wind down at the ground before spinning its two stars in opposite directions and took off into the air with a quick blast of water.

Turning his head to follow the Water-Type, Tyranitar failed to notice the effects of the first attack. Freezing the ground right in front of the large Pokémon, the soaked grass and sand created the perfect surface for a thin ice sheet to form.

Not ready for the sudden change in friction, the Armor Pokémon tripped over his own feet and straight onto his back. Yet he didn't have the time to try and regain much of his balance as Starmie was already curving back in on him like a boomerang.

"Tyranitar Crunch it!"

"Starmie stop!"

Headed right for the strong jaws of its opponent a sudden shroud of blue engulfed the Water-Type stopping it in mid-air just out of reach as Tyranitar lunged at the starfish while trying to stabilize itself on all fours.

"Hydro Pump!'

Aiming every point of its back star at the Rock-Type, several powerful blasts of water hit their mark point blank sending the giant Pokémon sliding back on the slick ground for several meters.

"Thunder!"

Even before it was able to recover, Starmie began generating massive amounts of electricity again and without much apparent effort guided down several large bolts of lightning from the sky, striking the nearly helpless Pokémon. Each bolt bathing the whole stadium in a brilliant flash of light before going dark again as the rain continued to fall.

"Gyro Ball!"

Returning to its simultaneous spinning, a metallic grey ring began to form along the edges, and in a sharp arc smashed right down onto Tyranitar.

Landing down in front of its trainer, even without a face one could tell Starmie was quite satisfied with the results.

"Nice job Starmie," Sarah congratulated her Pokémon. "I think we still need to work on the delivery a bit before going into contests but it's a very good start."

"Come on Tyranitar get up!" Andrew called at his own Pokémon. "We can't be beaten like this, Focus Energy!"

Getting up again on all fours, his Pokémon struggled slightly to stand upright but with a loud roar seemed more than ready to continue.

"Oh come on," Sarah nearly whined. "Just give up already. I pretty much know your Tyranitar by now; I want to see something different. But if you insist we might as well use this time to our advantage, Starmie let's try out Glaze."

"Are you okay Tyranitar?" Andrew asked his Pokémon. The Rock-Type was quite winded but he was more than willing to continue. "Alright then, Thunder Punch!"

Running back at his opponent, even Tyranitar was surprised to see the rain start to stop as Starmie's center crystal flashed through several colors before changing to a light icy blue. Firing off a Water Gun right below itself, the Pokémon rocketed up into the air while launching a few short shots of second Water Gun. But it was obviously not like any ordinary attack. Aimed right at the massive Pokémon's feat, the water froze the instant it made contact, creating a thick casing of crystal clear ice around the Armor Pokémon's legs, cementing firmly it in place.

Before it could even try to try to break free, Starmie landed behind him and began to fire of a torrent of water right at him. Yet now in plain view the attack showed just how unique it was. Using its top spike to fire off the water, the two adjacent spikes were each firing off a light blue ray right where the water was coming out and just slightly after that.

The massive blast of water quickly engulfed Tyranitar, and like the water before it, froze on contact. Covering its entire body in a thick layer of ice, it continued to build up until the spires of the substance filled up nearly a quarter of the whole field. In the center of it, unmoving, was the mighty stone dragon.

"There," Sarah sighed as she folded up her umbrella. "Can we move on no...you've got to be kidding me."

As she was saying that, her opponent's Pokémon became surrounded in a pink glow as it closed its eyes, even under the crushing weight of the ice.

"And now it's using Rest," she groaned while rubbing the bridge of her nose. "You're not making this much fun, you know that?"

Soon after, the frozen Pokémon's eyes shot open and began to glow a brilliant scarlet red before large cracks started to form in the ice block. In seconds a terrifying and deafening crash was heard as the Rock-Type flexed his body, shattering the entire formation and sending massive boulders of ice flying around the field. Dropping to the ground, most of the chunks of ice sunk straight into the soft soil or crashed into the walls just as if they were made of solid rock. But there was one that was headed on a very dangerous course.

"Look out!" Andrew screamed as a boulder several meters square flew right towards Sarah, who was still currently still looking down in annoyance.

Right as the ice chunk was about to hit, it shattered into countless pieces, scattering around harmlessly. In its place a translucent green sphere was surrounding the young girl, while the Eevee on her shoulder had its eyes glowing a deep green. The little Pokémon was glaring right at the Armor Pokémon, not even the slightest ounce of fear in either her eyes or body posture. But if looks could kill, Tyranitar would be dead several times over at that point.

"And a Superpower to break free," Sarah continued, almost as if she was completely unaware as to what had just taken place.

Andrew fell to his knees in complete shock. The only thing running through his mind was that he nearly watched her die from one of his attacks. He may be close to despising his opponent at that point, but that event was something he didn't even want to think of.

Finally looking up, Sarah on the other hand seemed a little confused by his actions.

"Are you okay?" She asked, cocking her head a bit.

"How can you be so calm?" He finally got out, shakily standing to his feet. "You just nearly got crushed!"

"Huh? Oh you mean that," the brunette said nonchalantly. "I wasn't in any danger at all. As long as I have Eevee with me, something like that is nothing at all. So should we continue?"

"Right…"

"Starmie, you okay?"

Looking around the field, the Pokémon was not to be seen. Large blocks of ice were scattered around the area, but the largest ones all seemed to have been blasted outside of the regulation field area, leaving it relatively clear. After a few moments a couple smaller ice chunks off to the side began to glow blue and lift off the ground, revealing the Water-Type underneath. Getting up, its core was flashing every now and then as it moved back towards its trainer.

"Dang, well after that I guess we'll just call this your win," Sarah conceded. "While she could still battle, now that your Pokémon is back at full strength it would pointless to continue. Starmie, use a quick Recover. You did great out there. And your Tyranitar continues to surprise me, something that doesn't happen very often," she continued looking back at her opponent. "Even if it's not perfected yet, to break free of that ice is quite the feat."

"What do you mean by that ice?" Andrew couldn't help but ask, looking over his Pokémon who, just like his opponent noted, seemed to be back at near full power thanks to the quick Rest.

"I call it Glaze, named after a particular type of ice that forms after a rare weather pattern I saw once in Kanto, freezing rain. By supercooling the water to below its freezing point while keeping it in a liquid state, it creates a very unstable attack. Because of this, once it hits a surface it freezes instantly and doesn't have the normal impurities that normal ice has; thus creating a much heavier and far stronger ice whose surface is slicker as you can imagine. Even regular Ice-Type attacks can't reach the levels that we have created. But we're still far from getting it completely correct, it's a work in progress."

"_Who the heck is this girl?"_ The Johto native thought, looking at the trainer in front of him who was wearing her usual carefree smile. "_I've never even heard of some of the things she's pulling off, let alone actually see them used them in battle, and she talks about them like it's no big deal. Either way, I'm just glad that I have the lead right now. I'd hate to have to go up against her in the coming years. But now that he's back up to near full speed, Tyranitar should be enough to take her out without that Aggron of hers to fight again."_

_

* * *

_

"Well that could have gone better," Sarah mumbled to herself while looking at Starmie's Pokéball as sunlight began to peek through the slowly scattering clouds. "But then again that was the first time we've used that attack outside of training so there are bound to be problems. We just need to work on the temperature control between the two cooling phases." Looking back up at the scoreboard, the results were quite evident. "Down five to three, looks like it's about time. We don't have much of a choice at this point."

"Vee," the small Pokémon nodded.

"Kay, fun time is about over. Let's show him what a Ketchum can really do."

"Are you going to pick your next Pokémon or not?" Andrew called out from across the field, interrupting her little conversation.

"Yep, but would you mind if I pose a question to you first?" Sarah suddenly asked seemingly out of nowhere, her usual smile right back on her face. "Why did you decide to become a trainer? Was it for the thrill of adventuring? The idea of meeting new friends as you travel? Or was it simply for the titles, trophies, and fame?"

"What? " Her opponent seemed caught completely off guard at the question. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"It's an easy question to answer when you really think about it, and I find that this one question can tell me quite a bit about a trainer. Their past, their ambitions, even the way they view their Pokémon. For me at least, it was twofold. Growing up with a Pokémon almost always next to me it just seemed like an obvious choice. I wanted to meet and learn about every Pokémon I could and befriend just as many, I wanted to form a bond with them that was beyond that of your average trainer. But I also want to test mine and my Pokémon's limits, to meet as many challenges as we can and prove to ourselves and everyone out there that we can overcome them. I battle simply because it's exciting and fun; for us, success doesn't necessarily mean winning. It's just to experience the thrill of matching wits with another and seeing who comes out on top. But this isn't like Kanto or Johto. Over there many people know the name Ketchum, but to them we are nothing more than a few celebrities living far away. Here in Hoenn though, it is known by nearly every traveler carrying a Pokémon, league member and coordinator alike. It is one of the few names that can both create awe inspiring beauty and chill you to the bone in fear. Of course my parents were the ones who created this reputation, and I for one don't want to ruin it. I'm sorry, but I can't let myself lose this battle."

While making her little speech, Sarah was playing with the golden necklace hanging around her neck. Removing the ball attacked to it, she expanded it and with a small sigh tossed it into the field. In the usual flash of light a yellow human-like Pokémon took shape. It was no taller than Sarah was but the brown armor that covered its chest and arms seemed to hang loosely off of it skinny frame. Even though the usual for its species is already rather slim, the definitions of many bones were clearly visible across various areas of its body. The Pokémon's body was floating just barely above the ground as the rest of its limbs lay limp along its sides. But both eyes were glowing an intense bright blue as he stared right at his new opponent.

"Alakazam, Second Form; it's time."

Without a sound or nod, the Pokémon closed his eyes in concentration. As every person watched, the two trademark spoons in its hands slowly dissolved into nothingness. His fingers flexed slightly, getting once again used to the loss of their possessions.

"And the Red Trainer has chosen an Alakazam," the announcer called out. "She's down two Pokémon so we'll just have to see if it can turn the tide for her. Begin!"

Although Andrew seemed very surprised by her choice he quickly regained his composure. Seeing as how the field was still wet from the earlier rain, he needed to reform the surroundings back to his advantage. As he was, Tyranitar's large frame was slowly sinking into the saturated soil and any swift movement would prove to be nearly impossible.

"It doesn't matter; we still have the type advantage. Tyranitar, Sandstorm! Bring that Psychic-Type to its knees!"

"X7794, Y015, S72," Sarah's mumbling was almost incomprehensible but the intended listener understood it completely.

With a loud roar the stone dragon once again began to pour the blowing sand out of its carapace. While it was having a little trouble getting the attack going due to the damp air and ground, the storm was building quickly as the sand absorbed the remaining moisture.

Just as the Sandstorm was beginning to obscure the sight of the two trainers, Alakazam finally opened his eyes. Shooting forward at a pace faster than any normal Pokémon could move while running, he skimmed the surface of the ground making a beeline straight towards Tyranitar. Drawing his right fist back, it connected with his opponent before the poor Pokémon could even comprehend what just happened.

The Psychic-Type hit just at the top of his opponent's chest and the force of the single punch sent the massive Pokémon flying backwards past his trainer and nearly through the stadium's wall. After a few seconds, the sound of crumbling concrete could be heard as he fell back to the grass, completely out cold.

The entire stadium was dead silent as Alakazam calmly floated back near his trainer.

"Playtime is over," Sarah said with a slightly creepier smile than her usual. "Welcome to the big leagues."

* * *

Well I hope that the title of the chapter lived up to its claim. These battles I was a little more confident in than that last ones so I hope that you enjoyed them.


	4. A True Battle Between the Minds

Looks like I might have overdid it a bit with the last chapter. I apparently have at least a few readers rooting for Andrew at the moment, lol. Well either way I'd be willing to bet a few of you can guess what is coming up soon in this chapter. Thanks as always for everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

"Holy hell she brought him for this fight?" Jake paled as the Alakazam moved back towards his trainer. "Whatever I said earlier regarding her not caring about winning this battle, I take back completely. If she took him out of the stadium she has full intent of beating this guy."

"Ooo, Big Brother said a bad word," Hannah scolded him. "Mommy, Big Brother said a bad word!"

"Sorry Kiddo, it's just that out of all of her Pokémon, I never expected Sarah to use him. As far as I knew she was still saving him for much later. In fact I was starting to think she wouldn't use him until she finally faced Dad in an official match."

"Heck I didn't even know she had an Alakazam," Max said, more surprised at the effect of its attack itself, unlike most of his in-laws. "According to the league records she didn't have it a few days ago."

"It's because she never registered it with the league," Alex explained, still as stunned as her brother at seeing the Psychic-Type. "But of course because she never registered him, it was impossible to bring him to or use in a league sanctified battle. He is by far Sarah's most powerful Pokémon. Not only is he as observant as she is but he is her only Pokémon able to keep up with every one of her advanced adjustments and commands. Even the few in which you literally need mathematical formulas to figure them out."

"It almost makes me wonder at times who has the higher IQ, her or Alakazam," Jake joked. But his comment wasn't taken too lightly by his parents.

"Jacob you better have not said that to your sister," May sternly warned her son. "You know very well how sensitive she is to that topic."

"Don't worry Mom, I know. Besides, no matter how much I love to tease her, even I wouldn't stoop that low," he told them with a half-smile. But even if it wasn't outwardly shown, a few of them there knew that this was something that worried him quite a bit. "Even Alakazam aside, she knows very well how good she is at battling. I wouldn't doubt that this is probably the reason she pretty much never gives it her all, which makes it even more surprising that she is pushing so hard to actually win this battle. Sarah just wants to have the fun of decoding her opponent and their strategies and then going head to head with them matching her wit against theirs. I would bet that during the battle between her Aggron and Tyranitar, she had more fun than any other point in any of the Leagues so far. No offence Grandpa, Uncle Max."

"None taken," they both sighed, knowing very well what he meant.

"And this all stems from one source," he continued. "I don't think I need to exaggerate the fact to everyone that she probably has one of the brightest minds in Hoenn, if not the country. Some people would give anything just to have a portion of her gift, yet the ironic thing is that I've overheard her several times talking to Eevee about wishing she was just normal. But no matter how much she wishes to be normal at times, she is always wearing that smile. I almost want to say she wears it to make sure people don't worry about her, because she never wants to think about just herself. From what I can tell all those analytical and comprehension skills come so naturally to her she does them without even thinking, so it's become so integrated with her battle style even if she wanted to she probably couldn't battle without them."

"Wow that almost sounds philosophical when it comes from you," Alex teased her brother, but even she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Oh shut up. None of us can probably even start to understand how she really feels when she is down there. But no matter how much she may hate her gift at times, it's almost entirely because of it that she can hold her own against trainers who have far more skill and experience than she does, even against Dad. Especially when she uses Alakazam, that thing can actually stay up for a full five minutes against him before being defeated, twice as long as anything that the rest of us have."

While Jake ranted off slightly without thinking, both of his parents knew all too well where this all came from. He wasn't the only one who knew those details, but the fact was that 't it still didn't really get outside of the family too often. Ash and May knew from the start that Sarah was a bit more unique, not only from the twins, but from themselves as well, and it wouldn't be an easy start for her. Yet even if it wasn't always evident, she always had help on hand; all she ever needed to do was ask.

"She really does have it pretty hard, even if it never shows," Norman commented, obviously not thrilled with the way the current discussion was headed. "But were you being serious about being able to hold her own against Ash? We all obviously knew she was talented, but to go toe-to-toe with an Elite Four class trainer for that long is almost unbelievable for a child her age. How is her Alakazam even able to do that?"

"Good question," Jake grumbled, looking over at his father. "Dad doesn't usually talk much about it. And considering that he and Mom are the only ones not apparently surprised about Alakazam's appearance I'd bet that they already knew about this."

"Sorry Jake, but Sarah asked us not to say anything," May told her son. "She was more excited than usual when she called and seemed to greatly look forward to this battle."

"And it wasn't as if we were keeping you completely in the dark," Ash added. "After our usual small talk this morning she asked me to send him over to her, along with registering him in the league's network. Considering she just now decided to do so I knew that this would be no ordinary battle for her. Whether she knew about his Tyranitar or if it was for some other reason I can't say. But as for his battle style, she based part of it off of an old theory of mine that I originally mentioned in passing to her. I thought it up quite a while ago but never had a Pokémon able to really put it to practice. Yet as it seems with most of my techniques and strategies, she absorbed it like a sponge and expanded on it."

"Why doesn't it surprise me that you were the one to come up with this?" Max laughed while relaxing back in his seat. "Guess that just shows that even I still have quite a ways to catch up to you if you are thinking up things like this."

"Well, I only thought it up in theory and as such never knew if or how well it would work. She was the one who learned the idea behind it and perfected it into what you see now."

"You're being as vague as always Dad," Alex said to him. "You've already started so don't try and get out of it now."

"Alright fine, I guess now is as good as ever. I just hope Sarah won't be mad at me after this," he laughed. "Although I'm not sure how much you'll understand, here it goes. The part I came up with is a close-combat strategy usable by Psychic-Type Pokémon. She, using the idea behind Raichu's stances, created the two combat variants that Alakazam uses. And it's all based around how he uses those two trademark spoons. The spoons themselves are actually nothing more than amplifiers formed from Alakazam's psychic energy which allows him to utilize his psychic powers at a distance. This is what she calls his 'Primary From' and it's used mostly for defense and battlefield control. Without the spoons, virtually all that energy is confined within his body. Sarah calls that his 'Second Form' and that is the form which uses my original idea, utilizing that energy for a powerful offense. Each form has its own set of attacks that the other can't use; it's almost to the point where it feels like you are fighting a completely different Pokémon when she switches forms."

"So he uses close range in that second form instead of normal psychic moves. And because of that, a Psychic Pokémon is able to punch a quarter-ton opponent back across half a field and through a concrete wall," Alex summarized, the sarcasm quite evident in her voice. "Sorry Dad but even from you it's hard to believe."

"Alright then, would you believe me if I told you that his gaunt body is a result of that training as well?"

"Umm, kinda. But I would still say that you are just trying to change the subject."

"Actually I've been wondering about that one myself," Caroline mentioned looking over at the Pokémon in question. "I could never have imagined Sarah to let one of her Pokémon to suffer from malnutrition."

"That's because it isn't malnutrition," Ash corrected his mother-in-law. "He's as healthy as every other one of her Pokémon. It's just the result of the ultimate example of 'use it or lose it', muscular atrophy. Even though most Alakazam use their psychic powers to support their body to some extent, Sarah's uses only his psychic power and virtually no muscles to move. Thus since its body doesn't need them anymore, it naturally lets them shrink. Although it forces Alakazam use a portion of its mental power to move, it no longer needs to feed its muscles nearly as much. This also reduces his metabolism allowing him to save energy and focus more his remaining metabolic energy to go straight to his brain, thus increasing his overall psychic potential. And with him no longer relying on the normal physical limitations to move, his speed can go as fast as his mind can take him. It's something that takes quite a while to achieve, and once you start down that path you have to be sure it's what you want because, while it isn't irreversible, it can take a long time to recover back to a normal state."

"Um, Dad?" Jake asked, thoroughly confused by some of what his father said. "How and why do you know this stuff? And please tell me that you haven't taught it to Sarah."

"To learn the upper limitations of what your Pokémon are safely able to do you need to learn about the Pokémon's biology, and more specifically its physiology," Ash explained. "So when I first started the Hoenn Battle Frontier and knew I had to literally be as good as I could get, I studied these topics quite a bit and the books are actually still in the library back home. As for Sarah, you should be able to guess that one on your own. You know how much she loves reading; your little sister will read literally any book she can get her hands on. She has read through pretty much every book in the study, including those that you were asking about. Besides, even though I know this rather well I still wouldn't be the best teacher when it comes to that stuff."

Seeing as how he was getting blank stares from everyone but his wife, Ash decided to just get more to the point.

"_And this is the reason that Sarah is able to pick up my ideas easier than they can," _he thought, holding back his annoyance. _"But then again it took many years before I started using this stuff myself, so I guess I can't blame them too much."_

"Okay then, moving on. The reason that Alakazam is able to do that punch is because with all of the psychic energy confined inside of him; it becomes easier to focus it on a single point, like his fist, and create a large amount of force. In Sarah's case the attack is based off of either Focus Blast or Psychic depending on the situation. It also uses up his stamina at a much higher rate than normal, but as you saw the results are explosive. In fact I would assume that after that attack he'll only be able to fight one more Pokémon at most before collapsing. And there you have it; you wanted the explanation for the attack, even if you barely understood the reasons behind it, so I gave you most of the details."

"Collapsing?" Jake asked looking back at the Psychic-Type. "He doesn't even look winded, let alone ready to collapse."

"That's because all of the ideas you have for a Pokémon being tired are either directly or indirectly related to their skeletal muscles and physical bodies. Because he doesn't use them nearly as much in battle, Alakazam doesn't show the usual signs that people look for. While the signs are still there, they are very subtle and most would miss them. Trust me; he won't last too much longer."

* * *

"Ala Alakazam."

"Eevee vee eevee."

"Only one more huh?" Sarah asked her partner as Tyranitar was returned to his Pokéball. "Kay, guess that just proves that we still have to work on his stamina training, because his overall power seems acceptable for now. This is the first time that he has gone up against someone other than Dad or Jake and I think it went rather well, don't you?"

"Vee," the Evolution Pokémon responded with a nod.

"Well even if we'll have to switch Pokémon after this next one I think the intimidation factor will hit pretty hard. Even if none of our other Pokémon can come close to Alakazam's level yet, it's not every day you see a Pokémon get punched through a concrete wall. It was nice of him to use a Rock-Type at least; otherwise we wouldn't have been able to put that much power into the shot without risking severely hurting his Pokémon. Either way, you and Gengar should be more than enough to finish off anything he has left." Looking back at her shocked opponent she couldn't help but giggle as a thought ran through her head. "If he's this surprised by me I doubt he'd last long against Dad or the rest of the Hoenn Battle Frontier. They would wipe the floor with him in no time."

Laughing alongside her trainer, Eevee couldn't help but picture some of their opponents going up against her trainer's father, especially when facing her own father. She had battled against many of his Pokémon herself, so she knew firsthand how powerful they were.

"But then again most people don't know the true strength of an Elite Four class trainer. And even though I know Dad's battle strategies better than anyone, I also know for a fact that he still has a few tricks that he doesn't want to show me just yet. Probably to keep me from decoding everything he has. It doesn't matter though, eventually he'll use them in front of me and then I'll get the fun of figuring them out all the way down to the very last bit. Oh well, better get back to that battle at hand."

* * *

After recalling his Pokémon, Andrew couldn't stop staring at the Psychic-Type that was back on the other side of the field, hovering in silence while waiting for his next opponent. From his physical appearance he would have originally thought that it wasn't well cared for and would be too weak to even put up a fight, but the results were obviously quite the opposite. His Tyranitar had never been beaten ever since it had evolved, but in one shot was taken out by an opponent he should have had a complete advantage over.

"_How the heck did she get an Alakazam?"_ The trainer asked himself._ "The league records didn't show her having anything like that just yesterday. And by the way she is able to command it it's not as if she got it in a trade or anything, yet I've never seen an attack like that before. Is this the real reason she's called a demon?"_

Even after the attack and the entire audience silenced in awe, Sarah still kept the confident smile on her face, the same type that she had sported throughout the rest of the battle.

"_I can't beat that thing,"_ he finally told himself, paling slightly at the realization. _"And I doubt that anyone here could. I spent days researching every one of her Pokémon so that I wouldn't be surprised like this, and in the end it was all for not. The best thing I can hope for is to use numbers to my advantage and hope I can win against it in battle of attrition. It's still four on three, and that Eevee shouldn't be too much trouble compared to the others. I just have to hope luck is on my side."_

Gulping one last time he reached for another Pokéball. Tossing it out into the middle of the field, it burst open with the usual red light. Although the shape that took form was already a familiar sight on the field.

"I was wondering if you were going to use him," Sarah commented with her usual demeanor.

The other Pokémon that Andrew chose was an Alakazam. Though unlike his opponent's there was nothing all that unique about his compared to the average of his species. Standing on the ground, the Alakazam stared right at his opponent with his own sense of usual confidence. Yet once his eyes met his opponent's, Andrew's Psychic-Type nearly froze. Although the other Pokémon was just floating there looking like a rag doll with his arms and legs just dangling from his joints, his glowing eyes betrayed the powerless appearance. The compressed psychic energy confined in his body could only be truly felt by another Psychic-Type, and the vastness that the other Pokémon felt was horrifying.

"Alakazam, Primary Form," Sarah commanded as her opponent's Pokémon nearly took a step back. "It won't be any fun if we take the physical route."

Crossing his arms in front of him, her Alakazam closed his eyes and with a bit of focus the two iconic spoons began to materialize once again in his hands. When they finished reforming a small burst of psychic energy flowed out of his body, blowing up some of the dry sand still remaining on the field as the energy was released through the two foci.

"Alakazam, snap out of it! Psybeam!"

"Z7426."

While one Alakazam quickly brought both of his spoons up and launched a multicolored beam from them the other simply rose one hand with no visible effect happening. Yet barely before the beam hit its mark, it curved off target and in that instant a virtually invisible spherical barrier shone in the sunlight, disappearing again as the beam flew off.

"Shock Wave! Energy Ball! Another Psybeam!"

Every attack Andrew called turned out just like the first, deflected harmlessly along the edge of a barrier that only flashed into sight as the attack hit it. All the while his opponent's Pokémon simply floated there, completely unaffected.

"Psycho Cut!"

"Z31194."

Rushing forward with his left arm glowing a light pink, Andrew's Alakazam brought it down trying to slice into his opponent. But as before, the attack hit another barrier and harmlessly slid down the side, unable to find a good surface to stay on.

"Focus Punch! Shock Wave!"

Just as the Psycho Cut lost contact with the barrier, the Psychic-Type brought his right fist into the barrier, glowing white. This time apparently aiming for the barrier itself, but even if the attack didn't slide off like the others the waves of force could be seen rippling across the sphere. Even the second hit had the same effect; penetrating slightly further than the Focus Punch, the electricity hit a second barrier before reflecting off.

"That's not going to work no matter how hard you try," Sarah calmly informed the other trainer as his Alakazam backed away. "This is our defensive form. We've spent most of our training perfecting the various barriers; from decreasing the visual aspect to conserve energy to altering the shape as to allow maximum transference of force to even creating multi-layered barriers with each one protecting and reinforcing the next. In this form we can even hold our own against my dad, whose reputation in battling I'm willing to bet you know quite well. He's developed strategies just to counter my Alakazam," she finished with a giggle.

"You say that but there is no such thing as a perfect defense," Andrew shot back. "We just have to find its weak point!"

Yet even as he said it, he was already trying to find out figure out a way through it. The first thought was obviously Brick Break, but besides the fact that his Alakazam didn't have it he couldn't overlook the fact that she probably had a counter for it as well. He's already thrown most of his attacks at it and the barrier didn't even distort, let alone crack. He just didn't have the time to be able keep testing everything before she finally decided to make her move.

"Well in the end there is only one way to find out I guess. But it wouldn't be all that fair to the audience if it was only you on the offense."

"Alakazam, Psychic while its guard is down! Grab it before it can attack!"

Holding out both of his arms in front of him, the Johto native's Pokémon concentrated hard to mentally reach out and grab his opponent before it could react.

Encapsulated in the foreign psychic energy, Sarah's Alakazam could feel the powerful aura steadily gaining control of his body. Only resisting enough to keep his fragile frame from being injured, the loyal Pokémon awaited his trainer's next command.

"Alakazam, grab the blocks from coordinates E2 and D9," Sarah calmly told her Pokémon. "Bring them together in the middle. X2284, strategy B7."

Closing his eyes, the Pokémon did exactly as told. Virtually ignoring the fact that his limbs weren't even under his direct control anymore, Alakazam began focusing solely on the two targets.

"Alright Alakazam, lets finish this while we can!" Andrew called out. "You just have…to…use…"

Before he even could finish his sentence, the ground began to rumble slightly as if something big was on the move and the earth itself was groaning in resistance. It didn't take too long to see how true that statement was. Surrounded by a light blue aura, two of the gigantic ice blocks on either side of the field were slowly lifting out of the holes they created after crashing down earlier in the fight. Each twice the size of a large car, the trainer was speechless as the two came to a stop only after they were completely excavated from the soil.

Even with his opponent squeezing his body with its own attack, Sarah's Alakazam skillfully positioned the chunks opposite to each other before executing the maneuver. Using up much of his remaining mental strength, the Psychic-Type brought the two together in a massive crash, sending the broken pieces flying in virtually every direction.

"Alakazam, Protect!"

Quickly dropping his opponent, Andrew's Alakazam brought forth a green transparent shield around himself just as the ice shards began to reach him. But even without the shield they never would have.

Every shard, which ranged from the size of a small pebble to as large as basketballs, stopped in mid-air before even leaving the battlefield. As the bright midday sun shown down on the arena, each piece sparkled an array of colors as the light passed through them, seemingly creating countless rainbows dancing across the field.

"This is an adaptation of one of my brother's favorite combinations," Sarah explained as the ice slowly began to rotate around the field's center. "Though this form is a bit more functional than his version."

"Alakazam, quickly use Energy Ball!"

Bringing his hands back together, Andrew's Pokémon fired off another green orb right through the ice field at his opponent. But before it even made it past the half-way point, a large piece of ice shot right into its path. Hitting the oncoming attack the block was incinerated instantly, nullifying the Energy Ball in the process.

"As I was saying," she continued. "Unlike his version, I can freely change between using this for attack or defense. Alakazam, Ice Bullet."

Extending one arm in front of himself, Alakazam gathered hundreds of pellet sized ice shards around it and with only a moment to aim began to fire them off in rapid succession at the other Pokémon.

"Dodge it!"

Enveloping itself in its own psychic aura, the other Psychic-Type hastily took off into the air just as several of the splinters came shooting down around him. Accompanied by a spray of dirt as they hit the ground, each of the attacks quickly dug deep into the soil.

Following his opponent with his arm, Sarah's Alakazam continued launching the pellets at high speed towards their target. Gathering and breaking down the pieces with his left arm and transferring them to the right one to be launched, he was able to keep a constant stream of the swift flying attacks. But even if this technique would be powerful in its own right, he only needed to keep his opponent's focus occupied while he set up the real attack. And with as accurate as he was getting, it wouldn't be hard to keep his opponent's attention on the diversion. The only problem was he was rapidly running out of stamina in the process and it wouldn't be much longer until he collapsed from exhaustion.

"Alright Alakazam," Sarah finally told him after a minute or so. "Do it!"

Only by the time the ice pellets stopped firing did the real attack start. From the position of the two trainers, the rest of the ice floating around the field seemed to just be revolving erratically around the field's center as the two Psychic-Types engaged in the shooting practice. The reality though was that each one was slowly being positioned into the most effective spot. Covering every portion of the airspace above the field for several meters skyward, the location that Andrew's Alakazam was currently in was completely exposed to the path of every block.

Just as the two finally noticed the trap that was being set up, it was too already late. Every ball shot right for their target, covering every possible angle of escape.

"Alakazam, Teleport!" Andrew shouted just as he realized the position they were put in. "Now Thunderpunch!"

Disappearing from sight, the Pokémon escaped disaster just as the chunks began smashing into each other right where it had been not more than a second ago. Appearing right behind his opponent with his fist covered in arcs of electricity, the Psi Pokémon finally found the one chance to actually hit the other Psychic-Type. But just before his fist could make contact, one of the large chunks of ice intercepted his attack, exploding into countless pieces and spraying across his face.

Distracted only for a moment by the counter, Andrew's Alakazam lost sight of his opponent as his vision returned.

"Behind you!"

"Alakazam, grab it."

Before he could even turn around, Sarah's Pokémon quickly grabbed his opponent in the same fashion he was grabbed just minutes before. But this time, there was little chance for escape. While both Pokémon were exhausted from the battle, one obviously had the upper hand.

In a last ditch effort to snatch victory from the hands of defeat, the captive tried for one last strike at his captor. Without even waiting for an order from his trainer, Andrew's Alakazam used what was left of his strength to resist the hold and spin back around at his opponent, fist once again shining from the arcing electricity.

Reaching nearly all the way to his face, the Psychic-Type felt as though the battle was finally over and he would rise as the victor. But just before the final blow was made, the attack stopped just inches from the target's face. White hot electrons scattered in every direction as they hit the protective barrier and bounced harmlessly off. In the blinding light of the attack, the only thing that could be made out by Alakazam was the vivid glowing blue eyes of his opponent, coldly staring right into his own.

"See, just like I said," Sarah told him with her usual smile. "You can't beat my Alakazam's defenses that easily with brute force alone. Alakazam, time to end this."

Using the last bit of his power, Sarah's Alakazam flexed his own mental prowess once more. Smashing his opponent down to the ground, the force of the blow knocked it unconscious, ending that round in Sarah's favor.

* * *

"Sure, she says that but in reality he's only the third person that Alakazam has fought. Of course he wouldn't know how to pierce those barriers just yet," Jake muttered. "Even I'm still working on finding that weak spot. At least I know what I need to look for, if I can just hit that one point…"

"Big Brother what are you talking about?"

"Huh? Oh sorry Kiddo, it's nothing. I'm just talking to myself."

"Big Brother I thought that you said that Sarah would win," Hannah said looking up at him.

"You don't have to worry about that, there's pretty much no doubt that she will."

"So then why is she losing?" The young girl asked.

"Well she may be losing right now but she'll win in the end."

"Why doesn't she just win the entire time?"

"Okay Kiddo that question is hard to answer. The best that I can give you besides that's not the way battles work is you'll understand when you're older."

"Why?"

"Um…well…that is...Mom please help," the poor boy pleaded.

"That's enough Hannah," May told her daughter. "Like Jake said, you'll find the answer by yourself in time."

"But I wanna know now," she protested.

"Hannah we've talked about this before, for some things you just need to learn to wait."

"Aww."

"But in the end, you really are more similar to Jake than your sisters though," May continued, looking from Hannah to Jake. "At your age your brother was the exact same way."

"Really?" The young Ketchum perked up instantly after hearing another comparison between her brother and herself.

"Always asking why," her mother sighed. "While Alex and Sarah had that phase as well, it was Jake who could never just let something go unanswered."

"Oh come on Mom I wasn't that bad," Jake groaned. "Was I?"

"No actually you were worse. Alex and Sarah would at least give up after a little while but I could never get you to quit. In the end either I or your father had to distract you with Pokémon long enough for you to forget the question. Raichu, Espeon, and Ninetales were lifesavers all too often at that point, though if I remember correctly you got off to a bad start with Ninetales when you kept yanking on one of her tails and didn't want to let go. For several years you thought of it as your personal toy."

"Okay I think we should change the subject," he finally said, trying to save himself some embarrassment.

"But I want to hear more about Big Brother when he was my age," Hannah pleaded.

"Trust me it won't be as interesting as you think."

"I don't know about that one Jake," Ash said with a sly smile. "I can recall plenty of stories that are pretty funny."

"Dad, I beg of you, please don't."

"Oh come on I want to hear these as well," Alex chimed in.

"You do understand that any type of humiliating situation that includes me almost indefinitely will include you as well, correct?" Her twin informed the brunette. "And seeing as how we did everything together, a large majority of them will have us in the exact same situation, not just with you watching."

"Um, on second thought, I take back what I said," she corrected herself, slinking back into her seat.

"So does that mean I don't get to hear the story?" Hannah asked, looking between her two older siblings.

"At least not until either of their wedding days," Ash added, still sporting his smile.

"Really Dad?" Jake complained. "You probably had to deal with it on your wedding day, so why put your kids though the same thing."

"Nice try Jake, but it didn't really happen that way."

"Dad don't try and lie," Alex sighed. "Supposedly it happens in every wedding. The parents will mention a few things about their kid that the kid would have preferred to forget."

"Actually your father is right," her mom told them. "You see by the time we were married we had known each other for nearly half of our lives, so there were virtually no secrets between us. Besides, with your Grandma Ketchum as talkative as she is, I heard the rest about your father even before our wedding."

"You mean you knew _everything_ about each other…" Both twins had various thoughts running through their heads at that comment. Most rather innocent but others they couldn't help but consider at their age.

"Pretty much. Thanks to Manaphy there were even a few times that we…"

"May, I get the feeling that you aren't helping the situation," Ash interrupted. "Besides I thought we agreed that…"

"Whoops, oh yeah. Let's just keep it at that, kids."

"Manaphy? Who's Manaphy?"Alex asked, slightly suspicious of the way her parents were acting.

"He's an old friend of ours," Ash said, trying to finish up the topic. "Now Sarah's battle is still going on so we should keep cheering for her."

* * *

Not much to say, so I hope you enjoyed it. Next chapter will be up as scheduled.


	5. The New Champion Arises

I guess people are just getting used to my rather original battle ideas if not a single person even mentioned Ash's explanation. Then again I wouldn't doubt if a few of my readers were as confused by my reasoning as Jake was. Well either way, thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

Walking back from the center of the field, a group of about ten Eevee moved calmly and confidently in battle formation as excess electricity flowed from their teeth. Slowly, one by one, they began to fade and disappear. By the time the last of the illusions dispersed, the large purple snake behind the Normal-Type fell down to the ground, its muscles finally relaxing after the paralysis released its hold over them. Even if short bursts of static still coursed across its scales, the Pokémon was out.

"And Arbok is down! Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that the young Sarah Ketchum has turned this battle completely around. Just minutes ago she was down to three Pokémon compared to her opponent's five and now she is the one standing with three left and her opponent is down to his last Pokémon!"

The announcer was just doing his job but it was quite evident he was stating the obvious. Most of the stadium was still silent from when Sarah first used Alakazam, even if Eevee's performance was quite exceptional as well. The way Sarah seemed to effortlessly bring herself back into the lead was like watching an expert artist weaving a tapestry, swift yet precise strokes that gave only a glimpse of the final product and no mistake in sight.

Although not nearly as energetic as she usually was, the small Evolution Pokémon was more than able to walk back up to her trainer and make her way up to her usual spot. Collapsing onto the brunette's shoulder, the Normal-Type just cuddled in and enjoyed the warmth and smells that accompanied her companion.

"You did great out there Eevee," Sarah commended her partner with a scratch between the ears. "Although you didn't have to be that hard on the guy, the ice thing was only an accident."

"Vee," the small Pokémon defiantly responded, turning her head away.

"Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter much anymore. Only one more to go and we've won it."

As he recalled his Arbok, Andrew couldn't believe the situation he was in. He, after getting to the top levels of several tournaments, was now pushed up against the edge like he was nothing more than a rookie. The battle he had come so confidently into and got a large lead early on had now nearly completely slipped away. One by one his Pokémon were picked apart by the maneuvers his opponent was calling out, almost as if she knew what he was going to do before he did it.

"_First Tyranitar and Alakazam lost to that insane powerhouse of hers and now this. I can understand it beating Ampharos in the condition he was in but to beat Arbok as well, I've never seen an Eevee battle like that. Every move I made, it dodged and delivered a near perfect counter, all the while keeping up those illusions. She was even copying our moves and using them against us on top of that. There isn't any doubt now; she really is the demon prodigy that people have been talking about. This is my last hope; I'm just going to need all the luck I can get."_

"Go Typhlosion!"

Appearing in the iconic flash of red light, a large four-legged Pokémon with a tan underbelly and blue back appeared on the field. With a small grunt a mantle of flame quickly appeared on the upper back of the Johto starter. Although it seemed a little annoyed to be chosen last, it was more than ready to keep the battle going.

"And there it is," Sarah said as the Fire-Type stood up onto its hind legs. "I was almost wondering if you even brought him, but we need to give the audience a good ending, don't 'cha think?" Grabbing from one more Pokéball from her belt, the young brunette tossed it onto the field. "Gengar, let your shadows rise."

As the ball hit down, the normal red light that came out seemed a far deeper scarlet compared to all the others. With the light fading away a pitch black Pokémon stood there with his red eyes glowing. About as tall as his trainer, the ghost Pokémon stood there on two short legs with a toothy sinister grin on its face.

"Gengar verses Typhlosion," Sarah unconsciously muttered to herself. "Both at full strength and the trainer is mentally starting to break. Under these conditions: 95% chance he'll start with Eruption, 75% chance of dodging, 80% of counter hitting, 65%..."

Eevee couldn't help but shake her head at hearing Sarah's muttering. If her partner knew enough about the opponent to start this, he wouldn't stand a chance. But it was this very habit that she sometimes hated so much. Especially at times like this, her mind automatically began figuring and calculating how the battle would progress, and depending on how much she knew about her opponent and their Pokémon the results were usually quite accurate. Considering virtually every battle she observed Andrew he had used his starter, the odds were not with him at defying her predictions.

"Are you ready yet?"

"Huh? Oh sorry," snapping out of her mumbling, Sarah put on a courteous smile before continuing. "I believe that it would be your turn to start."

Completely uninterested in her demeanor as this point, Andrew just tried to focus on winning what he could.

"Typhlosion, Eruption!"

"Take flight Gengar! Adjust; A83, B96, C22!"

With a loud roar a large pillar of ash started to spew up from the ring of fire on Typhlosion's back. Collecting into a large cloud in the sky above the arena, it quickly began to block out the sun before ejecting droplets of lava across the field. A faint mist slowly started to creep across the grass as some of the lava came into contact with the ice still left over from Starmie's assault earlier in the battle creating an odd atmosphere combined with the lava raining down from the sky. But no matter how much of the molten rock was thrown out, Gengar was able to stay away from the vast majority of the attack.

"Sludge Bomb into Maneuver N6!"

While finding a gap in the falling lava, the Ghost-Type opened his mouth and fired off several dark purple blobs of gunk at his opponent, though most seemed completely off target. Striking just around his opponent, the splashing of the balls of liquid poison caused Typhlosion to flinch only momentarily. Yet that split second was all that was necessary for a single shot to hit square on Typhlosion's right shoulder.

Before his opponent could recover, Gengar split itself into several bodies as he swiftly flew down. Landing on the ground directly below where he just was, the bodies recombined back into a single Pokémon. With only a quick grin the ghost split again, this time with them all flying right at his opponent, each seemingly well enough created that a shadow moved along with every one of them.

"Typhlosion quickly use Blast Burn to stop those copies! We can't let that thing get in close! I don't want a repeat of the battle with that Eevee!"

"_One will survive, only to be struck down."_

Stopping his first attack, the fire on the Johto starter's back flared up once again before he let off what looked like nothing more than overly large Flamethrower whose fires were a deeper orange in color, but in actuality was one of the most powerful of all the Fire-Type moves learnable by a very select few Pokémon species. Before any of them could reach him, Typhlosion was effortlessly able burn away all but one of the Gengar who was able to fly up into the air to evade the attack.

"It has to be that one!" Andrew called out. "Fire Punch!"

With practiced ease, large amounts of flame began flowing off of his right hand as Typhlosion carefully aimed at the remaining Gengar. Striking just as the Ghost-Type was in front of him; the Volcano Pokémon smirked as the attack hit its target square on. But his grin quickly turned to a look of surprise as the elemental punch went straight through without any resistance, causing the form of the Gengar to blur slightly before disappearing completely.

"_But they failed to notice the true target."_

Even if it appeared that every copy was destroyed, their shadows remained and continued to move even without a body to produce them. Racing behind his opponent the points of darkness merged together and from that single shadow arose the Ghost Pokémon. Pulling back his right fist, a black aura surrounded it before striking the Fire-Type in the back, sending the Pokémon sliding across the field. Before his opponent even could even fully recover from the first hit, Gengar split again. Repeating his actions, the several bodies, complete with shadows, flew off and recombined behind Typhlosion.

Just starting to recover from the first strike, the Volcano Pokémon was unable put up a viable defense for the next one and could only try and brace himself as the second Shadow Punch once again struck him hard on the back, forcing him to drop down onto all fours.

"_And now the hammer will fall."_

"Alright Gengar, it's time. Bring forth the darkness."

Backing up slightly to put some distance between him and his opponent, Gengar opened his mouth wide and began spewing a thick cloud of black gas, slowly covering the field. As their vision began to cloud over, the last thing that Andrew and his Pokémon saw was the piercing red eyes of the ghost. The glowing orbs seemed to shimmer as they looked directly into them, before they too vanished into the dark mist.

Coughing as the gas began to irritate his throat; Andrew knew all too well the advantages and disadvantages that came with this type of move. And if they did this on purpose, he would be in big trouble if it stayed like this for too long.

"Typhlosion burn away this cloud with Flamethrower!" He got out between coughs. "Hurry!"

Quickly launching several gouts of flame from his mouth, the intense flames burned away the smoke in no time. But even once the attack down to nothing more than a faint mist covering the ground, his opponent was nowhere to be seen.

Now that the dark clouds were gone, Typhlosion began to feel a little woozy. Almost as if he wanted to just curl up and go to sleep, it was getting hard to see as his eye lids were getting heavy and his head began to bob up and down as he tried to stay alert. Whether it was from the gas itself or the two direct punches he couldn't really tell, but he couldn't stop his body from shivering slightly as a sharp chill ran down his spine. Even surrounded by his powerful flames, the Fire-Type began to feel strangely cold.

"_Where did he go?"_ Andrew asked himself, looking in all directions. "_He has to be somewhere on the field otherwise they would get disqualified, unless…"_

"Typhlosion, below you! He's in your shadow!"

Before the Volcano Pokémon could even look, a black hand shot up from his shadow grabbing his right arm. Not long after, several other hands began appearing, grabbing onto the helpless beast.

"Come on! You have to get out of that!" His trainer yelled out, though in the back of his mind he knew that this was probably the end. For some reason his Pokémon wasn't reacting as fast as he usually was, he was barely putting up a significant resistance against the assault.

Struggling only slightly, a faint red nimbus began to glow around the Johto starter and slowly he felt his remaining strength being sapped from him. The longer he resisted, the more the hands continued to appear. Grabbing onto him, they all kept trying to pull the Fire-Type to the ground.

Only able to resist for so long Typhlosion finally fell forward onto all fours, no longer able to keep himself balanced upright. Now that he was down on the ground the feelings of exhaustion and sleep swept over him once more, but unlike before the resistance he had against them was faltering. Moments after losing his balance, his shadow started to slowly stretch out away from him and pool into a large black circle. Before long the pitch black skin of Gengar began to rise out of the shadow, his body glowing the same color as his opponent. But unlike his opponent, Gengar seemed to look even better than when he started the battle.

Unable to hold on any longer, Typhlosion gave one last defiant look before finally collapsing onto the ground. And only then did the hands recede back into the shadow before it split back into the two forms of the individual Pokémon.

"And Typhlosion is down!" The announcer call out as the crowd roared to life. "In what was probably one of the greatest comebacks in this tournament's history, Sarah Ketchum is our winner and the new Hoenn Champion!"

Without a word Andrew recalled his starter back into it Pokéball as Gengar dove down into his own shadow and raced back to his trainer before reappearing behind her.

"She really is a demon," he said without thinking as a reluctant grin formed on his face.

Walking up to the middle of the field, Andrew met up with his opponent who was laughing as she tried to push her overly friendly Gengar off of her.

"You were better than I expected," Sarah told him as she held out her hand after finally getting her Pokémon to calm down. "Your Tyranitar in particular surprised me with its strength multiple times, and that doesn't happen too often."

Taking her hand into a firm handshake, Andrew almost felt as though he shouldn't be the one who got the compliments.

"Thanks, but I should probably be apologizing; I thought that your name was nothing more than something to scare other trainers. Now I know you deserve the name the 'demon prodigy'. This is completely my loss."

"I thought I told you before," she groaned in annoyance. "Please don't call me that. That name is nothing more than something my older brother spread around to annoy me."

"Your brother spread that name just to annoy you?" He almost couldn't believe it. "What kind of bother do you have?"

"Ironically enough, the best one I could ever wish for," the young girl told him with a genuine smile. "Even if he doesn't always act like it."

Thoroughly confused, the Johto native just shook his head as she began to walk back to the trainer's prep room to wait for the award ceremony.

"I never thought that we could be beaten that badly at this point," Andrew began saying, still holding his Typhlosion's Pokéball. "And yet she acted as though it was all nothing. We haven't gotten the opportunity to battle a member of a regional Elite Four so I can't say for sure, but it almost seems as though even she is on a level I would imagine from them. Is there really that much of a gap between trainers like us and them?"

* * *

"I won Dad!"

Jumping into her father's arms, Sarah embraced him with all her might and nearly dropped her new trophy in the process.

"Yep, I saw Honey," Ash told her while returning the hug. "You did great out there, both you and your Pokémon."

"Congratulations dear," May added from next to her husband. "Your training with Starmie is paying off as well. You should be ready for whatever path you choose next."

"Thanks Mom," the young girl said as she dropped down out of her father's arms and hugged her mom.

"Congra…congrashu…congratulations Sarah."

"Congratulations Sarah."

Looking over at the other three present Sarah let off a big smile, even if it was partly from the scene of her younger sister trying to pronounce the word.

"Thanks Hannah, thanks Alex."

"So the demon has done it again. It seems that my little nickname has spread quite a ways."

"Jacob…" Ash tried to warn the boy. "Don't taunt your sister."

"I'm not taunting her," he replied with a bit of a grin. "I was congratulating her. It's just that her opponent today thought that my name for her was her actual nickname."

"You overheard that?" Sarah questioned him, the annoyance quite present in her voice.

"Not exactly, I got it secondhand. While I may not be as good as you, Mom, or Dad yet, I can get the general idea of what Umbreon is saying. You had some very interesting conversations with that guy at times. Besides I think the performance you put on toady helps prove it. Just how many moves ahead did you predict for Arbok and Typhlosion?"

Lowering her head, a light blush could be seen growing on her face as she mumbled an incoherent sentence.

"Could you repeat that please?" Jake asked, barely holding back showing how much fun he was having at that point.

"The whole thing," she repeated, only slightly louder than before. "I was off on a few moves here and there but I already had a back-up plan for each one."

"There you go people, a feat nearly unheard of in trainers our age."

"Don't even think about saying it Jake," Sarah nearly growled at him. "I don't want to deal with it today."

Even though she knew he wouldn't do anything like this maliciously, trying with all her might the young girl could feel the annoyance welling up within her. That topic had always been a bit of a sensitive spot for her ever since she finally realized she was a little different than her other siblings. Of course no matter how hard she tried to conceal it, Jake was always able to catch onto it quickly. Though for some reason sometimes she noticed he would only go to a certain point with this type of teasing, no matter how much he obviously enjoyed doing it.

"And thus I present to you the 'demon prodigy'."

"Jake!"

Clenching her fists, Sarah glared death right at her brother. A single look that could make even seasoned trainers stop dead in their tracks, yet her brother had seen it all too often by that point and barely gave it a second thought. But distracted by her sudden outburst, Jake nearly missed the fact that her shadow was starting to extend out toward his own.

"Whoops!"

Jumping back, Jake barely avoided the several black hands that reached out of his shadow. Stopping in mid-air about a meter off the ground he just floated there, a relieved expression on his face as they began to recede back into darkness. Even still, he had to laugh a little at his situation.

"That was a close one," the boy chuckled. "It's nice to see you too Gengar."

Rising up from where the boy's shadow just was, Gengar began staring right at his trainer's brother. Yet his attention was quickly drawn downwards as Umbreon took a step forward, eyes glowing a faint blue. It had been a while since the Moonlight Pokémon had spared with the Ghost-Type, yet he was still quite confident if they had a match he would win. While it may have had mastery over the shadows, the darkness itself was his domain and he was more than willing to prove it.

"You see Kiddo," Jake said, looking down at his youngest sister. "This is why I asked you not to become like your two older sisters. They both have anger management issues."

"JAKE!"

Nearly cringing at the enraged voices of two of his sisters, Jake couldn't help but let out another nervous chuckle.

"Well Umbreon, I believe that would be our cue to get out of here. If you would be so kind, we kinda need a bit of a head start."

Sighing deeply at the antics of his trainer, the Dark-Type took one last look at Gengar before concentrating on a different ability. Within seconds both his and Jake's bodies began to fade before disappearing completely.

"Jake you're not getting away that easily!" Alex yelled. "Espeon find them! We're bringing them back!"

Sighing just as deeply as her brother, Alex's Espeon obeyed the order and soon after they disappeared as well.

"Eevee, you can Mimic that Teleport right? We're following them," Sarah told her partner.

"No, you stay here," May told her daughter as she grabbed onto her shoulder. "Let Alex deal with him."

"Besides, did you really need to have Gengar go after him?" Ash added in, looking at the snickering Ghost-Type. "He is your bother after all."

"I wasn't going to hurt him," the young Ketchum defended herself. "Much..."

"Uh huh, well that aside your mother and I have something to say about your battle today."

"I understand that you trust Eevee to keep you from harm, but can you at least look like you notice what's going on around you?" May semi-scolded her daughter. "You nearly gave your grandparents a heart attack when that block of ice nearly hit you. Even we were getting nervous, and we knew that there wasn't anything to really worry about."

"Sorry Mom, sorry Dad," Sarah said, looking down at the floor. "It's not like I didn't notice the boulder flying at me, but I just didn't think anything of it because I knew Eevee would take care of it. I trust her completely, no questions asked, just like all my Pokémon."

"It's not as though we're mad at you or anything Sarah, and to be honest how could we with that attitude. It's just less stressful to us when it at least looks like you're being careful."

"Of course on that note," Ash added. "Eevee, thank you to for protecting our daughter. Not just this time but every day. I doubt that I can put into words how much each one of our children means to us, so having someone like you keep a constant watch over her and help protect her is more than we could ever ask for."

Standing up straight on her trainer's shoulder, she gave a confident "vee" in appreciation.

"You're definitely like look like your mother did when you do that," Ash chuckled while rubbing her beneath the chin, receiving a content coo in return. "Just keep up the great work, both of you."

"I will Dad."

"Oh and you're going to apologize to your brother when he gets dragged back by Alex."

"What! Why do I have to apologize?"

"Don't worry; he's going to have to as well. But you were the one to try and attack him."

Giving off a defiant "humph", Sarah said no more. She may not have agreed with the order, but she knew the reasoning behind it. And she barely ever went against her parents' wishes.

"Daddy where did Big Brother go?"

"Don't worry Hannah, Alex is looking for him right now and will probably be bringing him back real soon," Ash said, bending down to his daughter's level. "But in the mean time let's go say goodbye to Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Max."

"They're leaving already?" Sarah asked as Ash picked Hannah up. "But they just got here. They were even late for my battle."

"So you noticed that huh?"

"Of course," she responded proudly. "Nothing escapes my eyes."

"I wouldn't go that far," he chuckled. "But I can't deny how good those eyes of yours actually are."

"Your grandparents were barely able to spare time to make it to your battle," May informed her, bringing it back to the original topic. "In fact considering their schedule they really even shouldn't have, but all three of them were determined not to miss your battle today. Your Uncle has to go the league headquarters to officially succeed your Grandfather as the leader of the Petalburg Gym, while your grandparents have to cosign the papers if he passes. And make sure that you explain and apologize for the ice incident, they still don't believe me when I tell them the reason why."

"Kay."

* * *

"Ow ow ow ow, do you really have to do this? I can walk on my own you know."

"No we tried that one already, and we proved that you couldn't be trusted."

Even with nearly everyone in the crowd watching them as they walked by, Alex cut through the mass of people without a second thought. Of course the reason that everyone was staring was rather simple, the teenage girl was dragging her brother by the ear as they made their way back to the rest of their family while their two Pokémon walked calmly behind them.

"Umbreon a little help here?" The boy begged.

"Umbre," the Pokémon said while shaking his head.

He may consider himself loyal and willing to do anything for his trainer and long time friend, but even Umbreon knew when it was pointless to run. He had known his trainer since the day he was born, and some could almost say even before that, but there was still one other that he had such a close connection to, his sister. Like Jake and Alex, those two were nearly inseparable since birth. But what sealed the connection was when they evolved. While he may not be a Psychic-Type like she was, the amount of different Psychic-Type moves he had still created a minor mental link between them. He could find her no matter where she was, just as easily as she could find him. Thus running was nothing more than a waste of time and energy, even if his trainer considered it fun to do so. And considering she seemed as annoyed as he was, he didn't want to add to her troubles either.

"Oh come on…ow! Not so hard!"

"Stop complaining, you're just drawing more attention to yourself," Alex told him, barely even listening.

"No they're looking because of what you're doing!"

"Dad I don't know how you can predict things like this. I knew she would find him, but I didn't think that she would be literally dragging him back."

"This is nothing, besides I could say the same thing to you."

"Hi Big Brother!"

Looking up, the siblings saw the rest of their family, minus their mother, watching them from one of the benches. Ash and Sarah were watching them from the bench while Hannah was playing with Raichu in the grass next to them.

"Ah, there they are," Alex said unconsciously as she walked towards them, still holding onto Jake's ear.

"Ow! Alex let go already! I'm sorry okay?" Jake nearly yelled.

"Alright Alex let go of your brother," their father simply stated, sighing slightly. "Although you should know better by now Jake."

"You say that but part of the problem is that they just can't take a joke," he responded while rubbing his ear.

"I can guarantee that was no joke," Alex growled back.

Running back to her brother, Hannah motioned to be picked up.

"Welcome back Big Brother," she happily said after getting onto his arms and snuggling up next to him.

"Hannah really can't read a situation, can she?" Sarah noted while holding back a bit of laughter. Even annoyed as she was with Jake at that point, she could never completely hold onto it for too long. Especially when she sees how differently he acts to their younger sister. He always seemed to look far calmer and controlled with her for some reason.

"What do you expect?" Ash questioned as he got up. "She's only four and a half. I wouldn't expect anyone her age to do so, especially when it comes to Jake."

"So what happened to Mom?" Alex asked, seemingly already having tuned out her brother completely.

"She's talking to your Grandparents and Uncle before they leave," he told her. "The ferry that they have to catch is leaving within minutes, and if they don't make it then your Uncle could lose his chance to become the official leader of the Petalburg Gym until next year."

"That doesn't seem too fair for them, especially seeing as how the finals were today."

"Maybe, but you need to look at it from a business standpoint. They actually have the tests today because it's the Hoenn League Finals. Every top official from across the region is in one place at the same time, so why not take advantage of it?"

"I hate it when you talk as the owner of the Battle Frontier," Alex groaned. "You never sound like yourself. It's just hard for me to picture you talking about business, even if I know you need to deal with it almost as much, if not more than, the challengers themselves."

"And you think you know everything about me?" Ash couldn't help but ask with a small chuckle. "I think I could still surprise you with a few stories of mine."

"Oh come on Dad, unlike Jake, I've sat through every one of your stories," a distinct hint of pride in her voice. "I know most of them by heart, and while there are some absolutely fantastic ones, I doubt that you could pull out another true story to top them."

"_Well there is one story at least that they wouldn't believe,"_ he thought, thinking back to the day he finally confessed to May. _"We still haven't told them the full truth behind that day."_

"Alright, come on everyone. Your mom said she'll meet us near the entrance, and then we'll be taking the ferry back to Lilycove. Once we get back we can head down to the beach and start the celebration for Sarah's victory."

"Yay! The beach!" Hannah called out from her brother's arms. "I wanna build a sand castle with Big Brother! And then I wanna go swimming! And then I wanna…"

* * *

Sorry to disappoint those of you cheering for Andrew, but you probably knew what was going to happen in the end. Next chapter will be up as normal, I hope to see reviews from all of you. Thanks for reading.


	6. Yet Another Rivalry Appears

As always, thanks to those that reviewed the last chapter. Here's number six.

* * *

It took a while for the family to make their way through the slowly dispersing mass of people who were crowding around the exit. What made it even worse were the people who recognized either Ash or Sarah. The twins and Hannah seemed more-or-less unphased by the scene, though Hannah seemed more distracted by the amount of people itself as she was led by her hand by Jake. With Ash and May's usual celebrity status with trainers, it was never easy for them to move through a crowd without someone asking for an autograph or just to shake their hand, so this was nothing out of the ordinary. Of course with her recent win, Sarah was currently receiving the same treatment. While the citizens of Lilycove had long since gotten over the star-struck attitude when the family would go into town, when there were people not only from all over the region but other regions as well it created a bit of a frenzy at times.

When they finally found May, Jake paled slightly when he saw the young teen talking to her. While Jake would contest that even Alex looked better than she did, the girl was no pushover either when it came to looks. What set her apart from many of the locals was the long blue hair which draped past her shoulders and onto her back. While many would attest to it being unnatural, it was just one of the many things she took after her mother. Even though her hair was always kept in near perfect condition, her clothes were rather simple in comparison to some of the other girls out there. That's just how she felt comfortable, nothing more than some white tennis shoes, blue jeans, and a light pink blouse. But she was never seen without the silver necklace and pendant set with a clear blue stone that her parents gave her the day she left home, which she always boasted brought out her eyes.

Alex was quick to notice the young girl as well.

"Oh revenge tastes so sweet right now," she whispered into his ear.

"Hey Mom! Hey Anna!" The girl waved while calling out to the two people.

Looking over at the newcomers, the younger girl seemed to perk up immediately. Running up to the group, she quickly latched onto Jake's free arm with a big smile on her face.

"Jake! I haven't seen you in so long, I was wondering where you went off to. The last time we saw each other was the Orange League nearly a year ago!"

"Yeah Kanto is a big place, as you probably know all too well," he said with a nervous chuckle. "It's good to see you too Anna."

Seeming to finally notice her actions, the blunette tried to casually let go of her rival to avoid too much suspicion. Jake seemed a little relieved by the action, but in truth he had long gotten over the aversion to her grabbing onto him. Over the years of her doing that it would have been nearly impossible for him not to, and as she grew up he couldn't help but feel a slight bit of comfort from it. By this point he didn't truly mind if she did it, it was nothing more than a slight embarrassment, especially around his parents and sisters. Or at least that's how he explained it to himself.

"Hi Hannah, it's nice to see you again," she said kneeling down to the child's level. "You've grown quite a bit since last time."

Hannah didn't say anything to the girl; she just grabbed tight onto Jake's leg and hid herself slightly behind him. The look she gave the blunette wasn't one of distrust or fear but more like some would think of as jealousy.

"Still not much of a talker huh?" The older girl laughed a bit as she rubbed the kid's head through her hat.

Standing up Anna quickly took a more formal pose as she turned towards Ash and his other two daughters.

"It's nice to see you again Mr. Ketchum, Alex, Sarah. And congratulations on winning the championship Sarah, you obviously still haven't lost your touch."

"Thanks, but it's kinda hard to compare the battle we had to the one today," Sarah said with a bit of a self-conscious smile. Looking down at the Mouse Pokémon right next to her, she scratched his ears earning a satisfied coo in return. "Raichu still is more powerful than any of my Pokémon, and I was just duplicating Dad's techniques that day. If I had used Raichu in today's battle, or even your dad's Umbreon for that matter, I could have executed moves that aren't even seen in the normal tournaments. So what I used that day was more Dad's strength than my own."

"Humble as always I guess," Anna commented, much to Sarah's apparent embarrassment. "You should try to actually accept compliments instead of playing them down like that. Even if you were using your dad's strength as you claim, just being able to do that is proof of your own skill. You should really be proud of it."

"If you put it that way, thanks," the brunette said while looking away slightly. Even if she got these types of compliments all the time, Sarah was never good with receiving them from people other than family members, especially if she knew the individual personally. Part of the reason always stemmed from the fact that a lot of the times they commented on areas that she would rather not talk about, either because of various strategies she used or directly related to her intelligence, and she would always try to tone such things down as much as she could.

"No problem, after that loss it was your level I was aiming for when I got into the Indigo League."

"But Jake beat you pretty early on," Sarah mentioned, holding back a bit of laughter after remembering the battle. "Rather easily if I remember correctly."

"Yep, he proved I still had plenty more to learn," Anna said while not even trying to hide the blush that formed across her face. "And because of that, I knew if I was able to beat him I could prove my own growth as well. Yet even after all this time I still haven't beaten him, and he's still outside of my reach." Leaning up against Jake the blunette gave off a big smile. "I can only wonder if it means that besting him in the arena won't be enough for me at this point."

"Um, Anna? What are you doing in Hoenn anyways?" Jake couldn't help but ask, not entirely liking the direction that conversation was going. "Last I knew you were still in Kanto because you decided that you didn't have to come down here for this league just yet."

"Isn't it obvious? I came down to watch Sarah's battle. I missed her earlier tournaments so I wanted to see how she raised her own Pokémon, considering that my dad always seems to speak rather highly of her. And I figured if I could run into you and Alex along the way it wouldn't be too bad."

"Why do I get the feeling that the priorities of that statement should be rearranged a bit?" Jake mumbled to himself.

Seemingly not hearing his last comment, Anna continued.

"After that spectacular example of a battle I came out here and ran into Mrs. Ketchum. So I was just talking to her when you all showed up."

"I told her that I was going to meet up with everyone soon and she decided to stay and chat for a while," May explained from behind the young girl.

"_Divine retribution I guess,"_ Jake thought to himself. _"It was bound to happen eventually."_

"Alex! Hey Alex!"

Surprised slightly by the new voice, two people recognized it without much of a problem.

"_Oh no, not now,"_ Jake pleaded, looking over at the person calling out. _"If it was any other time I'd be overjoyed to hear that beautiful voice, but please just not now."_

Running up towards them was a girl just a little shorter than Alex with short sandy-blonde hair. Wearing a black strapless shirt, a short dark blue skirt, and a white short sleeved light jacket she gave off a slightly different aura of sophistication compared to the blunette. Finishing off her look with a couple slim bracelets on her right wrist and a hair clip studded with a clear green stone pulling part of her hair off of her face, her hazel eyes seemed to glow as bright as her smile. Or at least that is one way Jake would explain it. Of course his definitions would go even further, but those he would never disclose any further than his own mind.

"Hey Sam!" Alex called back, waving at the girl. "Stopping here on your way back home?"

"Yeah," she got out while trying to catch her breath. "I heard that one of the Ketchum kids was in the finals, so I figured it was your younger sister." Looking over the people there her eyes fell on Sarah, holding out her hand the girl seemed genuinely happy to meet her. "And you must be Sarah then, I've heard all about you from Alex. She told me that you were good but I never expected you to be that good. Especially your Starmie, if I didn't know better I would have guessed you were a coordinator after watching that round."

"Um, thanks," Sarah hesitantly responded while shaking the girls hand. "Do you mind if I ask who you are?"

"Oh yeah, sorry that was quite rude of me. I'm Samantha Taylor; I've been friends with Alex ever since we started coordinating. I guess you could also call us rivals in one sense, but that word just never seemed right to me."

Feeling slightly relieved at hearing this, the brunette tried to lighten up a bit. "Ah so you're Samantha. As you apparently have guessed, my name is Sarah Anne Ketchum. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Alex did mention that you were rather formal at times as well," she said with a small chuckle.

"She does that as a reflex when she meets new people," Alex explained, pulling her younger sister in next to her. "With the exception of Pokémon and some adults, she always has a hard time getting what most would consider a normal conversation going."

Mumbling a few incoherent sentences, Sarah just tried to turn away from them.

"Of course to people she doesn't know all that well, Sarah doesn't like that little fact getting out. Instead, she just prefers for them think she's the perfect formal lady."

"Alex!"

"Don't worry you don't have to act that way around me Sarah," Sam told her, clearly seeing the girl's embarrassment. "I can probably understand why you might feel that way after winning two tournaments"

"Right," Sarah mumbled. "Thanks."

Turning back towards their parents, the blonde girl put on a polite smile before addressing them. "It's nice to see you again Mr. and Mrs. Ketchum."

"You too Samantha," May replied to her. "I'm glad to see that you and Alex are still getting along well."

"Hey Jake, it's been quite a while hasn't it?"

"Yeah it has been, hasn't it Sam," he said while trying to stay calm.

"You always seem so nervous Jake," she told him with a sweet smile. "We've known each other for nearly six years, I consider you as much my friend as Alex by now. So there's no need to be nervous."

Jake's face flushed bright red as the coordinator unexpectedly brought him into a light embrace. Even his siblings' suppressed laughs couldn't distract him from that moment.

"And finally you must be Hannah," Sam said, letting go and looking down at the young girl hiding behind Jake. "It's nice to finally meet you. I'm one on your big sister and big brother's friends. You're just as cute as they said you were."

Giving the newcomer the same treatment as she did to Anna, Hannah just pulled Jake even closer to her while continuing to watch the two girls carefully.

"I also heard that you were quite attached to your big brother, apparently they weren't kidding." Looking over at the last person there, the girl's features didn't match what she would have expected from the Ketchum family. Nor did she hear about them having another sibling. "But I don't remember ever hearing about you."

"She's a friend of the family," Jake quickly stated, hoping that Sam wouldn't get the wrong impression.

"My name's Anna Oak," the girl said somewhat harshly, already starting to make assumptions about the newcomer. "It's a pleasure."

"Oak?" It took Sam a few seconds to figure out why that name sounded familiar. "As in the famous Professor Oak?"

"Yeah that's my dad," she replied with an annoyed sigh. "Mr. and Mrs. Ketchum were friends with my parents years ago, and that's how I know Jake and the rest of his family."

"This may sound a little rude, but I've always wanted to meet Professor Oak. He always seemed so knowledgeable about Pokémon in general that I felt like I could learn quite a bit from him to help my coordinating and raising my Pokémon in general. Do you think you could arrange something for me?"

Not entirely liking this girl right from the start, Anna didn't see any reason to try and agree with her. Although the newcomer wasn't showing any obvious signs to make her feel this way, tinges of jealousy were already coming to the forefront.

"I don't know, my dad is always very busy," the blunette told Sam, a rather arrogant tone to her voice. "It wouldn't be too easy."

"Don't play with the girl Anna," Ash told her. "Considering he isn't truly as studious as he lets people believe, Gary just needs the right excuses for him to put his work off for a while and he'll usually gladly do so. Some are pretty easy to find, including introducing a fan who receives an endorsement from an old friend."

"So does that mean you could help me meet him Mr. Ketchum?" Sam excitedly asked.

"I'll see what I can do, but I can't make any promises."

"Oh thank you Mr. Ketchum!" Hearing a small alarm go off, Sam reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a Pokégear. "Dang it, I wish I could talk more but I have to catch my ferry to Slateport otherwise my parents will get worried."

Suddenly conscious of the time herself, Anna quickly opened up her Pokédex and groaned when she saw the clock. "And the one I have to get on for Kanto is leaving in a half-hour."

"In that case how about the two of you come back tomorrow and spend some time with us at the house," May suggested. "Ash and I would be happy to have you over as guests."

"Besides, all of you were planning on taking a break from traveling for a while now that tournaments are over right?" Ash asked. "We have plenty of space if you want to just relax or even if you want to start training for your next tournament. In fact if you want I can even supervise your training for a while."

"Really?" Anna perked up instantly at the offer. "But I wouldn't want to intrude on your schedule."

Letting out a quick laugh Ash looked back at the girl. "Don't worry Anna, a busy schedule for me isn't like a busy one for your dad. It's no problem at all."

"And while I appreciate the offer as well Mr. Ketchum," Sam said as she put her Pokégear back into her pocket. "I'm not sure how much help it would be for you to oversee my training as a coordinator."

"Alex must not have told you that I did some coordinating on the side years ago. Even without that, I think you would be surprised by what you could learn. But if you really wanted a coordinator instead you might be able to talk May into giving you some tips."

"Would you Mrs. Ketchum?"

"Sure Samantha, I'd be happy to help," May told her with her usual smile.

"Yes!"

Anna couldn't keep herself from jumping up in the air in excitement. While Sam tried to keep herself more controlled, it was still quite evident that she was just as excited as Anna.

"I'm going home to talk to my Mom and Dad," Anna called out as she raced off towards the south docks. "Bye Jake! Bye everyone, see you tomorrow!"

"Bye Alex," Sam said, giving her friend a big hug before heading out the same direction Anna did. "Bye Jake, bye everyone; it was nice to finally meet you Sarah. I'll go talk to my parents and call Alex tonight with what they said. But thank you in advance. See you tomorrow hopefully!"

* * *

"Thanks Mom for offering to allow Sam to stay with us for a while," Alex said to her mother as they all walked towards the west docks. While smaller than their southern counterparts, they were where the exclusive use of the more local ferries bound for Lilycove and Mossdeep. "It'll be a lot more fun than with just the family there."

"It's no problem Alex," the woman told her. "We're always happy to have company over, especially your friends. Besides, it was your father's idea to offer some help with their training, and it was probably that which genuinely made her and Anna consider staying for longer."

The two women were walking in the middle of the three groups that the Ketchum family had split up into. Hannah was dragging Jake out in front with Umbreon and Raichu right on their heels while Sarah, Ash, and Eevee were a little ways behind them.

"Having Anna over for a week might push Jake to his limits," Alex laughed. "Especially if Sam is able to convince her parents to stay over as well."

"I have to ask," May pondered a little. "Your father and I both know that Jake has had a crush on Sam for quite a while, and I can only assume you knew as well, but what about with Anna?"

"That one is a bit more difficult to explain," Alex said with a small sigh. "It's obvious how Anna views it, but Jake…well even I'm not really sure. At first he was completely against her following him, but now you could almost say that he's comfortable around her, as much as he would say otherwise. Even when she's holding onto him like you saw. Whether it means that he's actually developing something for her or not is the real question. What I can say is if he is, it's nothing like how he acts around Sam. That would be easily explained as more timid and nervous than he usually is. In the end he's yet to really get a casual conversation with her."

"That's surprising to say the least considering how confident he usually is, but if you're watching Jake's personal life so much why don't you seem to have someone you're watching for yourself?"

"Well I'm just waiting for the right person," Alex responded with a slightly blush. "And for some reason boys always seem more intimidated around me when I'm with Jake so it's always a little harder."

Smiling, May could only wonder why Alex hadn't noticed the real reason why.

"But getting back to Jake," the younger girl continued, changing the subject. "Like you said, he's quite a bit like Dad when it comes to girls huh? You've always told me how clueless Dad was to some of your advancements, and Jake was just as bad when it came to Anna."

"Maybe, but unlike your father Jake at least discovered that there are more than just Pokémon to the world," her mom said with a small chuckle. "You may remember the Cerulean Gym leader, Misty Skechit right? Well she traveled with your father for nearly the first three years of his journey, and for most of that time she held a crush on him. Well your wonderful father at the time was rather single minded and never noticed a single one of her hints. Even the couple that were so straight forward you could only wonder what he was thinking to miss them."

"If Dad never found out about it, how do you know this?"

"I've talked with Misty quite often, and I heard it straight from her. It's become a common point that we can laugh about, much to your father's annoyance."

"Aren't you jealous though?" Alex couldn't help but ask. "I mean she did have feelings for Dad at one point."

"But I'm the one who got him in the end," May told her with a laugh. "To answer your question though, no; Misty is just another one of our old friends. Besides, she's married to another of your father's old traveling companions now anyways, Tracy. If she ever did find the courage tell him though, I probably wouldn't have had the same experiences with him and might not have fallen in love. But that wasn't what happened, your father was dense as he ever was and we met, fell in love, and after several years we had all of you."

"It must have taken something pretty big for Dad to finally figure out the connection between you two if he was really as dense as you say."

"Yeah, you say that," May responded with a nervous chuckle.

"But we're almost at the docks; I wonder what he and Sarah have been talking about all this time. They've been trailing behind us ever since we left the tournament grounds."

"More than likely has something to do with the finals or what she's planning to do next. I wouldn't be too worried about it. You know as well as I do that those two always seem to be on a different wavelength than everyone else when it comes to certain things."

* * *

"You still haven't apologized to Jake you know."

"I'll apologize when he does."

Sarah and Ash were walking some distance behind the rest of their family, mostly because of Sarah wanting to keep their discussion between just themselves for the time being. With Raichu following Hannah up front, Eevee was the only one still back listening in to their conversation.

"You really need to just cut Jake a little slack," Ash told her, even though he felt like he gave this speech just as often as the one for the twins to stop fighting. "He is who he is, but first and foremost he is your brother."

"You keep saying that but I figured that at least today of all days he would have let up a little bit. I pulled out all the stops to make sure to win so that the entire family wouldn't be disappointed in me, and he still purposefully got on my nerves right after the battle. At times he's the perfect brother, but the vast majority of it seems like he doesn't care about how I feel at all."

"First and foremost it doesn't matter how you do in a tournament, we could never be disappointed in you," Ash told her while putting a hand on her shoulder. "But why did you choose today to finally show everyone your real talent? You've always wanted to hide it from the rest of the world."

"Because I was back in Hoenn," she told him. "You and Mom put so much work into creating a reputation here, one of excellence, power, and beauty. I wanted to follow your original steps as much as possible, and I couldn't help but almost feel nervous when I finally came back home. I just didn't want to be the one to ruin what you two spent so much effort to create."

"Well thanks for worrying about us but it wasn't necessary. Don't feel that you have to push yourself just for our sake, just do what you want to do. Both your mother and I never pressured any of you into anything about Pokémon because we wanted you all to just have fun. But back to the topic on hand, I think you underestimate what your brother thinks about you."

"Don't get me wrong, I know he cares about me to a point. But by the way he acts at times I can only wonder how much he really does."

Looking away from her dad, Sarah couldn't help but truly think about her statement.

"I've defended him countless times," she continued. "And the only reason that I still do is because somewhere inside of me continues to believe in him, even if the rest of me says otherwise. Although the only reason I can come up with to defend him is that he is my brother, no other reason than that."

If it wasn't for the bad mood that she was already in, Ash could have burst out laughing. But in the end all he did was smile at his daughter.

"Alright then, answer me this; when you left home for Kanto with only Eevee and Chimchar, who was worried about you the most?"

"That's easy," Sarah responded, almost amazed that he would ask such a question. "It was Mom. She barely allowed me to leave the house that day."

"Your mother was the most vocal about it, yes. But she wasn't the one; it was actually Jake who the most worried about you."

"Right," the brunette said while giving a sarcastic laugh. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Don't worry, I guarantee it," Ash reassured her. "While he isn't the most vocal about such a thing, Jake is more responsible than you might think. And he cares very deeply for every one of his sisters."

"So then why does he always make fun of me and Alex at seemingly the worst possible times, and why did he spread that name about me all around the surrounding regions?" She nearly yelled back at her father. "Because that doesn't sound like a responsible brother to me!"

"I can probably take a good guess but you'll have to ask him yourself."

Grumbling a few words Sarah knew she really couldn't say anything more, and taking a few deep breaths she calmed herself down.

"Fine, but he better have a good explanation," she finally said.

"As you know, the only thing that I ever ask for is to keep an open mind when you talk to people, especially when you are in a disagreement with them."

"I know, and it was from that saying that I based my entire battle style of off."

"Yeah you always were a quick learner, and nothing ever escaped your eyes. Just make sure that you use those gifts outside of the arena as well," Ash told her as he pulled his daughter close to him. "Although I may not be a good one to say this, you have to make sure that Pokémon aren't your entire world. You will always meet new friends and Pokémon, but you only have one brother and one family. And no matter how you feel about Jake right now, even if you say everything straight to his face, I doubt he'll change the way he cares about you." As he was giving the small speech, one of the ferry's whistles was heard in the distance. "Now come on, everyone is probably waiting for us on the ship."

* * *

Before people start assuming things, pretty much every one of the outfits that I've explained in this story, and nearly every story of mine, come from either anime or manga I've seen/read. I'm not one for figuring out a full outfit by myself and figuring out how well it looks, lol. Well thanks for reading; next chapter will be up as scheduled.


	7. The Truce of the Century

Thanks as always to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

The ride from Ever Grande City to Lilycove was only about an hour, and while the tournament was running the ferries ran a very regular schedule between the two. Yet even so, each ship was filled to capacity. Especially right after the final battle and awards ceremony.

If it wasn't for the umbrellas on the aft deck it would probably have been abandoned at that time of day due to the beating sun and nothing but ocean and a few specks of land as far as the eye could see. But because they were there, many people were relaxing on the various chairs out there as the ferry continued on towards its destination, and the Ketchum family was no exception.

"Daddy how much longer 'til we get to the beach?" Hannah asked from the railing overlooking the vast sea.

"We're only about half-way right now honey, so it'll be another thirty minutes until we get back," Ash told her while making sure that she wasn't trying anything too dangerous. "Don't worry we'll be there before you know it."

"Okay," pausing slightly after looking back across the railing, Hannah turned back to her father. "Daddy where is Big Brother?"

"Well he is…" Looking over to where he last saw Jake, it turned out that the teenager wasn't there. "I don't know where he is."

"Alex isn't here either," Sarah informed them from a nearby lounge chair. "I think I saw those two leave a few minutes ago."

"That might not be a good thing considering what happened earlier. Guess we just better hope that Alex isn't too harsh on him. It's a good thing that she doesn't usually hold much against him for too long."

"Actually I think it was Jake that pulled her aside," Sarah clarified.

"Now that wasn't something I would expect," May thought out loud. "I can only wonder what he is planning to talk about."

"I doubt there's anything to worry about," her husband said, not entirely paying attention to the conversation. "Hannah, don't stand on the railing. If you want to look at the ocean, stand on the deck."

"Aww," the young girl groaned as she stepped down off of the metal guard.

"Mom would you mind if I asked you a favor?" Sarah asked, after watching her sister lay her head back down and stare out across the water.

"Sure honey, what's up?"

"Could you give me a few more tips about coordinating in the next few weeks?"

"Of course I can, that's not a problem at all. Espeon, Blaziken, and everyone else could use a bit of a refresher," May told her daughter, seemingly slightly surprised at the request. "But you seem to be doing fine so far with Starmie at least, can considering she was your first attempts at coordinating you have done really well. What specifically did you want help with?"

"Well Dad has always said to keep an open mind about Pokémon battling, and has said a few times how coordinating can help with league battles so I want to learn everything I can. So I want to be able to use any of my Pokémon for coordinating, including some of the more advanced ideas. I know that some will be pretty easy to change, but I'll need some help with the more difficult ones."

"I think you might be most hard pressed getting Aggron into a contest," Ash mentioned with a big smile. "Even your mom would have a difficult time getting him to accept those rules. Not only that but I think you would scare the judges."

"No, with him at least I think I'll just try and integrate some of the ideas over time," Sarah said with a nervous chuckle. "I'm not even sure if I want to try and convince him otherwise at this point. He's rather gentle towards me, but he's still one I have to keep a close eye on."

"Your Dad will have his hands full over the coming weeks anyways so if it's fine with you we can work on it then," May told her daughter. "I may not do much more than judging lately but your mother can still put on a great show. Especially considering we know that you may feel like doing more than just the League Tournaments in the future."

"You're the best Mom," Sarah happily said getting up to go hug her mom. "Thanks."

"Like I said, it's not a problem at all Sarah," the brunette said as she returned the embrace. "You just need to find what you enjoy the most and go for it. We'll always be here to support you and give whatever help we can offer for you to find it."

"Daddy how much longer til' we get to the beach?"

"It's only been a few minutes Hannah," Ash responded with a deep sigh. "We still have a ways to go."

Groaning slightly in frustration the young girl tried once again to get a good unobstructed look at the sea.

"Don't we have to go back home first though?" Sarah asked, still lying down next to May. "Cause I know I didn't bring my swimsuit with me."

"Ash, I think it might be a good idea to let him stretch his wings a bit," May told her husband with a small smile as she straightened Sarah's hair a bit. "Not to mention I think Hannah would prefer not having to wait after we land."

"Guess you're right." Grabbing a Pokéball from his belt Ash tossed it into the air, but even before the Pokémon appeared he was already looking at someone else. "Hannah, either you get down off the railing and keep your feet on the deck or you will come over and stay by us."

"Awww."

* * *

"Okay so what did you want to talk to me about?"

Standing in the small room that came with their tickets, there really wasn't much else there besides a bathroom and a sitting area with a couple large windows. At the moment Alex was impatiently standing in front of her brother who was sitting down on one of the couches, their two Pokémon relaxing on the opposite one.

"Well?"

Taking a deep breath Jake looked up at his sister, he knew this wasn't going to be easy to do, but with her now waiting for his response he truly began to feel the pressure.

"Alright if you aren't going to say anything I'm leaving," she finally said, walking towards the door.

"Wait, I…I need to ask for your help."

"My help? If it's about Sam you can deal with her yourself. I've told you before, I'm playing neutral for that."

"No it's not about her; I want you to help me train."

Alex seriously couldn't even believe her ears; her brother would never say anything like that to her. The Jake she knew would die before admitting anything like that.

"Say that again?" She couldn't help but give a light laugh while asking it. "Because it almost sounded like you asked me to help you train your Pokémon."

Taking another deep breath Jake repeated himself.

"I did," he said. "I want you to help me train this year."

Finally accepting that what he said was real, Alex burst out laughing, much to her brother's increasing annoyance. But he never said anything, he just let her continue.

"You want me to help you train? What, are you finally admitting that coordinating is the better path? That it involves far more to keep track of and is also the harder of the two?"

"In one sense, sure, I do."

With the way he was acting, even at a moment like this, Alex couldn't keep making fun of him. He just admitted to essentially surrendering a battle to her that they had waged for nearly a decade, and even after that he just sat there taking everything in.

"Okay, who are you and what did you do with my brother?" Alex finally asked him. "Because my brother would never admit to something like that, especially to me of all people." Taking a deep breath, she understood that this was going to be something big if he seriously just said that. "But before I say anything else, I want to you tell me why you are asking this. How do I know this is not just some trick?"

"This is no trick," he reassured her. "Do you remember our conversation just before Mom showed up today?"

"How could I forget?" She virtually growled at him.

"Not all of that was a lie. Maybe not next year, or even the year after; but I want to defeat Dad and claim the Hoenn Battle Frontier trophy."

"And I told you before; you don't stand a chance against Dad. Your Pokémon and strategies are both completely inferior to his. I don't really want to be harsh when you're asking me like this, but as of right now you don't stand a chance."

"I know, and that's why I'm asking you. I want to beat Dad and the Hoenn Battle Frontier, and just as important I want to beat him before Sarah does. I've done a lot of thinking about this and I've come up with only one solution that would allow me to do both. I need to come up with and perfect several strategies to use against Dad along with my normal training, and I can't do it alone. There's only one person I know that can do that, you."

Looking right into her brother's eyes, Alex couldn't even remember the last time that he ever appeared that determined and serious.

"Fine," she accepted with a sigh. "I understand why you want to do it. So now tell me, what's in it for me?"

"Information," he told her with a grin.

"Information about what?" She asked, unable to hide her interest.

"I overheard Mom and Dad talking last night about what Sarah is planning on doing pretty soon."

"Right, now why do you think that would interest me?" Alex replied, almost disappointed at his response. "Sarah will probably just head off to either Sinnoh or the Kanto Battle Frontier before going to the Orange League, just like Dad did years ago."

"You're partially correct, but with her skills she'll be able to do that in two years without a problem. But there is the possibility that she won't."

"Explain."

"You saw her Starmie today, and I think you should be able to guess as to what I'm referring to. Sarah is planning on trying out coordinating sometime soon. I'm not sure if it'll be next year or after she finishes the regional leagues, but she will eventually."

"Big deal, unlike you I'm not worried about being able to win against Sarah."

"Do you really believe that?" He asked her, a confident smile growing on his lips. "As you've apparently already acknowledged, once she tries coordinating it's not 'if' you face her but 'when'. But when you finally do, even under contest rules, you would lose without a doubt. In fact, for comparison, while both of us would still lose, I would probably last longer against her than you would. Do you want to know why? It's because for your competition level your Pokémon are weak."

Even if she was feeling quite confident in herself at first after hearing Jake admit to wanting her help, as he continued his speech she could feel her annoyance nearly reaching new levels with her brother.

"Weak?" She yelled at him. "Weak? That's some way to ask someone a favor you little freak! And here I was almost ready to accept your request because you seemed so sincere about asking it! I don't know how you can make a statement like that, but unlike you I've won two championship titles compared to your one!"

"Just shut up and listen for a moment!" Jake snapped at his sister. "You have no idea how hard a time I had asking you for help earlier, so now will you actually just listen to what I have to say?"

Obviously not enthused at her brother's outburst, Alex forced herself to calm down, because no matter how much she didn't want to admit it he had a point. Put in his situation, she wasn't even sure if she could have admitted it to him.

"_He just better have a damn good reason for all of this,"_ she thought while taking several deep breaths. _"Because if not, he's going to be in a major amount of trouble tonight."_

"Let me say it again, your Pokémon are weak," Jake continued as his sister clenched her fists. But even still, she never said a word. "I'm not saying this out of personal opinion but what I've witnessed. Don't think that I don't watch your contests as closely as my own battles. I know your Pokémon nearly as well as you, if not better in certain areas. And the fact that you won two Grand Festivals is just more proof for my statement. Whether you realize it or not, when you come up with your strategies you are compensating for your Pokémon's own weakness. While they have excellent reflexes and reaction times which allows them to keep up with your different plans, they are lacking in speed, power, and defense compared to the Pokémon of other trainers of your level. Of course in the end that just shows your superiority in that area, neither Dad nor Sarah can even compete with you when it comes to it."

"Just get to the point."

"My point is this; you rely almost completely on your strategies to win. And it's because of this that you will never be able to beat Sarah as you are."

"And why is that?" She asked. "All I need to do is find the right weakness…"

"You don't get it do you?" Jake interrupted her. "Considering your expertise you should know better than anyone. Or maybe, you really do realize it but are in a bit of denial. Tell me, what is Sarah's battle style?"

"She's a counter-strategist," Alex responded rather reluctantly after a few seconds.

"Bingo, a combat style that takes a lot of observation and mental prowess but is probably one of the most successful ones out there. According to Dad, even at her age she is a master counter-strategist of the highest echelon. No matter what strategy or tactic she sees, she can decode it within seconds and once she does it is no longer just your own. She'll tear the thing apart until she knows every detail and then will either copy it to use it right back at her opponent or she'll find every weak point and use them to finish the person off without them even landing a single hit. But that's only the basics of utilizing counter-strategy, what she does is even worse. Thanks to her amazing intelligence and learning curve, by the time she decodes a strategy she pretty much already has it completely memorized and then takes pieces of it to add to her current strategies. Hidden within that head of hers are the strategies and tactics of hundreds of trainers; including Mom, Dad, Paul, and several Elite Four members, each one contributing a portion to her personal strategy. So do you seriously think that a person who relies solely on specialized maneuvers and their execution can overcome all of that and beat her? Because in these terms she is your mortal enemy, the Zangoose to your Seviper. The only real reason she doesn't win virtually 100% of the time in her battles is that her Pokémon can't always mimic the maneuvers at first and she prefers to have fun with the battle so she never really uses her real strategies. That guy she faced from Johto today had no idea what he was getting into, but you should."

"I assume that you have a point to all of this besides just making fun of me?"

"In return for your help I will offer my own. The reason that I would stand a better chance against her is because we don't usually rely on such things, thus I'm classified as an attack specialist. When you battle you are usually two or three moves ahead of the current situation, while I and my Pokémon only worry about the here and now. Part of the problem is that while you stay a couple moves ahead, if she knows her opponent well enough Sarah can predict entire battles with insane accuracy, including anything that you might try to prove otherwise."

"Big deal, what help can you offer me?" She asked, wanting to get to the point.

"I can help even out the rest of your Pokémon; increase their stats so they match their reflexes and reaction times. Even you should be able to understand that with help like that your Pokémon's power would increase exponentially when combined with your strategies, which is the exact reason why I'm asking you for the opposite. But first, I need to know something. Outside of Dad, you are the only other one who would know the best way to go about beating Sarah. I just need to know how many moves it takes for to figure out a strategy."

Grudgingly accepting that Jake had a point, Alex closed her eyes and began thinking back to all the battles she had seen Sarah in.

"Well?"

"Don't rush me," Alex snapped slightly at her brother's impatience. "This isn't easy you know."

"Three," she finally said. "For the usual strategies and attacks it takes three times before it becomes tactically stupid to continue using them. About 90% chance a new move will work the first time, 60% it'll work the second time, and less than 5% for the third. Depending on the strategy she might try and counter it by the second time or just wait to watch it again. But unless it's an overly complicated strategy like Andrew's Tyranitar, or their unconscious movements are unusually minimal, by the third time it's hers."

"Just as I thought," Jake said with a smile. "Even as a strategy specialist you can figure out things for counter-strategy as well. So in other words you have one shot before you should switch it up, two at the absolute most. What would happen if you got her to believe false information?"

"Why do you care so much about Sarah right now? Aren't you going after Dad?"

"It's simple when you think about it. Dad's battle style is classified as an all-rounder, and while he may not be as good as Sarah, he is an efficient counter-strategist as well. So if we set are standards higher it'll give better results in the end. Besides, Dad isn't the only one I want to beat," he finished with a grin.

"Fine, if you were somehow able to convince her like that you would get at most one surprise shot in before you would probably reset the three move rule. And after that she would be more observant so it would be unlikely you could get another trick in."

"So that's what we need to aim for," Jake declared with a confident look on his face. "You teach me several strategies that will allow me go up against Dad, and eventually Sarah, and I'll give you tips and ideas as to how to bring your Pokémon up to speed. Deal?"

Standing up and holding out his hand, Jake waited for his sister.

Alex was hesitant at accepting his offer. As happy as she at first about hearing him accept how she was the better trainer, now if she accepted his offer she would be admitting that he was also better than her and thus admitting her loss as well.

"Deal," she finally said, taking hold of his hand.

"I think that this could be the start of great new partnership."

* * *

"Ah it feels good to be back home!"

Stepping out from the boat, Alex stretched out and inhaled the familiar salty moist air.

"Oh please, we got back home a few days ago," Jake told her as he pushed past. "Besides it's not like Ever Grande is all that different from here."

"Spoil sport."

"Now Alex that's enough," May told her daughter as she got off as well. "Now let's all head down to the beach."

"Yay, the beach!" Hannah cheered.

"Um, Mom? Don't we have to go back home and grab our swimsuits?" Alex asked. "Because I know I at least didn't pack one before we left."

"Don't worry Alex, it's already covered," Ash told her with a small smile.

"Swellow!"

"Perfect timing as always."

Looking up they saw a large red and blue bird with a white underbelly circling above their heads. Looking much like the one that they saw earlier in the finals, this one was quite a bit larger and its excellent conditioning was very apparent.

Calling out again, the bird started to descend down to the family, landing right in front of his long time trainer.

"You did that pretty quickly Swellow," Ash commented as he removed the pouch strapped around the Pokémon. "Thanks for your hard work. I think you'd probably prefer to stay out of your ball for a while now, so I'll let you fly around. Just be careful and either come find us or head back home when you're ready."

Scratching Swellow's underbelly a bit, Ash once again thanked his loyal Pokémon before the bird took back off into the air. Looking back at his trainer for only a moment, it wasn't long before it disappeared from sight.

"When did you send Swellow out?" Jake asked with a surprised look on his face.

"About twenty minutes ago, your mom and I figured it was faster this way than going to the house and coming back. Besides, Swellow always like to have some time to stretch out his wings, so I figured that he could get his daily exercise in this way."

"So what did you ask Swellow to grab Dad?" Sarah asked, looking at the pack that the Flying-Type brought.

"Just a few things for the beach," he responded, looking through the pack. "Ah, and one other thing."

Pulling out a Pokéball, Ash released the contained Pokémon right in front of himself. Although part of him regretted it soon after. Before it was even completely materialized, the Pokémon jumped onto Ash knocking him down to the ground.

"Okay okay, Ninetales that enough," he got out in between laughs.

Literally standing on top of him, the Fox Pokémon continued to lick the man's face. All the while not listening to what her partner was saying.

"Come on Ninetales, get off," Sarah told the Fire-Type as she tried to pull her off her father.

Finally letting up, Ninetales obediently stepped off and sat down right next to Ash, acting as though nothing had happened.

"Revenge for not taking you with us, huh?" He asked, standing up straight and dusting himself off.

"Nine," she happily chirped brushing her head up against him.

"The silent dangerous type," Ash chuckled, scratching the back of her head. "Sadly I had to deal with several women like that over the years, human and Pokémon alike."

"Ahem," May cleared her throat from right behind her husband.

"Not that you were one of them honey," he quickly clarified. "Well don't worry Ninetales, we told you that the reason we left you behind was because of the stadium and now that we're going to the beach you can come along."

"Ninetales!" Brushing up hard against him, she almost made the trainer lose his balance in the process.

"Dad are you sure bringing a Fire-Type to the beach is a good idea?" Sarah asked as they began walking towards the beach again.

"Trust me Sarah, it would be worse not to."

"So I'm guessing that our bathing suits are in there as well?" Alex asked.

"Yep, along with a few towels, some toys for the sand, and I believe a beach ball too."

"So does that mean we can go swimming now?" Hannah asked with expectant eyes.

"Yep, it's all thanks to Swellow I have everything we need right in here," he said, motioning to the bag.

"Yay! Thank you Daddy!"

"No problem honey," he said to Hannah, who was currently latched onto his leg. "Just go with your mom and we'll meet each other out near the water.

"Come on Hannah; let's go put on your suit. Then we can go down into the water."

Grabbing a hold of her daughter's hand, May lead her down to the changing room with Alex and Sarah right behind her while Ash and Jake went to change as well.

* * *

Only one chapter left, so the next update will be the last one from me for a while. Hope you enjoyed this one and I look forward to you reviews.


	8. Past and Present Cycle Once More

Last chapter folks, thanks to those who reviewed last chapter and enjoy.

* * *

"So what do you think about everything Dad was saying about Jake?"

"Vee Eevee vee vee."

"Yeah I guess, but I still can't help but feel that this'll be nothing more than a waste of time and will just make me madder in the end."

After having changed into her swimsuit and a simple light white dress and hat to cover herself up, Sarah had decided to take a walk to try and get her thoughts straight concerning Jake instead of immediately heading for the water.

"I want to believe Dad that Jake worries that much about me, but he just never lets up to show that apparent other side of himself."

"Vee!"

"Is it too much to ask for him to be a normal brother?"

With her head in the clouds and not entirely paying attention to what was going on around her, Sarah accidentally bumped into someone else on the path. Almost losing her balance, she took a few steps back and nearly fell onto the sand.

"I'm sorry," she said as she got back onto her feet. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"No that's okay," the guy told her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'll be fine."

Looking up she saw that there were two boys in front of her, each about 15 or 16 years old. Both were in swim trunks and a t-shirt, obviously here to enjoy the beach like her family was.

"You know you're kinda cute," the one she bumped into said with a slight grin on his face.

"Huh?"

The young Ketchum could feel a light blush start to form over her face; she had never been called that outside of her family or friends before. But something still just didn't feel right.

"Do you want to go out for a meal? My treat."

Hearing Eevee growl from her shoulder, Sarah couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with the situation as well.

"Thank you but I think I should be getting back," she told them while trying to walk past. "My family is expecting me."

"Oh come on, it'll be quick."

With the boy moving to block her way out, the brunette was starting to feel pretty bad about the situation. Eevee was also quite aware of the way things were starting to turn and began to take up a defensive posture while still on her trainer's shoulder. What scared the little Pokémon the most at that point was that she still didn't feel up to speed from the earlier battle, yet it wasn't her own safety she was getting worried about. If she miscalculated how much energy she had left it could mean that she wouldn't just be putting her own safety at risk but Sarah's as well. Something she could never forgive herself if it ever happened.

"Oh you have an Eevee," the boy said, looking at the growling Pokémon. "She's kinda cute too."

"Hey Mike doesn't she look familiar?" The other boy asked. "Cause I get the feeling I've seen her before somewhere."

"Who cares," he shot back to his friend. "So little lady, shall we go?"

"No I really should be leaving," Sarah insisted one last time, the assertion starting to show in her voice. When she noticed that Eevee was getting worried about how things were moving the brunette really started to get nervous. She depended on Eevee when it came to protection, even if Eevee never had to protect her from a situation like this before. Taking a step back she lost her footing and fell backwards into the sand.

"Come on, it won't take long," he insisted once again, holding out his hand to help her up. "Just a quick late lunch, we could talk and get to know each other better."

"You heard the girl," a male voice came from behind the two boys. "She doesn't want to go with you, so just drop it and move on."

Sarah recognized the voice immediately, though it was not one that she had expected. Even still she could almost feel tears start to come to her eyes in relief.

"Buzz off kid," Mike shot back not even turning around. "This has nothing to do with you."

"Ah, is that so huh? Well in that case…"

"I thought I told you to…"

Unable to even finish his sentence, just as Mike turned around to face the new person a punch came right on through his jaw. Without a single sound the boy simply dropped, completely out cold even by the time he hit the ground.

"As I was saying," the person continued while cracking his knuckles a couple times. "I would have to disagree with you. In fact this has quite a bit to do with me; because that's my little sister you're scaring. You should have picked a better choice of words _kid_, because when it comes to her I don't give second chances."

"Why you, you're going to pay for that!"

Before the other boy could even take a single step he could feel a chill run down his spine as a deep throaty growl came from behind him. Spinning around he found a nearly enraged looking Umbreon literally stepping out of the darkness right between him and Sarah. In a full defensive stance, the Moonlight Pokémon had his teeth bared, tail erect, and head down low as he continued to snarl at the two boys.

Just at Mike started to come to, he looked up to find the icy cold glare of a boy around his age, but a much stronger build, focused right on him and his friend.

"I want you both out of my sight, now," Jake threatened. "You should just consider yourselves lucky at this point. If you would have made her cry, you'd find yourselves limping for months even before I was finished with you."

Helping Mike up to his feet, the two boys gave a faintly defiant look at Jake, but after seeing his cold eyes once more they quickly took their leave.

With a slight sneer at the retreating bodies, Jake quickly turned his attention back to Sarah. Umbreon, having calmed down right when the boys left, was currently rubbing up against the girl nearly purring in relief.

"I was wondering what was taking you so long," the teenager told her as he walked over and leaned down to help her up. "You should really be a little more careful in the future."

Even if she was feeling relief at simply hearing his voice only moments ago, expecting what was probably coming Sarah quickly couldn't help but fell a little discontent towards him.

"I didn't need your help," Sarah sharply told her brother as he got the brunette to her feet.

"I know," he simply replied while dusting the sand and dirt off of her dress.

"And I'm not going to thank you."

"I was never expecting it."

Sarah almost couldn't understand it; normally he should be making fun of her or Eevee at that point. But his actions were calm and collected. Even as he grabbed and dusted off her hat, which had fallen off when she fell, he had nothing more than a small smile on his face.

"Why?" She could barely get out.

"Why what?"

"Why are you doing this? Shouldn't you be teasing me right now? Saying how the 'demon' was unable to protect herself or how the 'monster' couldn't scare them off."

"I really hope that you are joking right now because I genuinely feel insulted that you think I would say something like that after what just happened," Jake said to her, the smile no longer on his face. "Do you actually think that low of me to even consider that I would do such a thing?"

"I don't know; you make fun of me any other time!" Sarah nearly yelled as tears began to well up in her eyes. "Even the one day I pulled out everything I had to prove the Ketchum name in our home region, the one time I truly try my hardest; you make fun of me in the end and ruin it for me! Not to mention you spread that 'demon' name around nearly every region before I even started and to most trainers that's simply what I am now! A demon that only knows how to win, isn't that how you made it?"

"Heh, for as smart and gifted as you are you really can be an idiot at times. Do you want to know why I do that?"

"Yes!"

"It's simple," he said, walking back up to her. "It's because you're my little sister. I make fun of you because it's one of my few sole rights; Dad is the only other one who I allow to do it, with Mom or Alex on occasion. Besides, it wouldn't be an interesting celebration party if you just had people saying 'congratulations' all day would it?"

"Even still, you didn't have to do something like that! Why can't you just be a normal brother? Things would be so much easier if you were."

Trying with all his might to hold back his amusement, Jake couldn't help but find the idea rather absurd. But at that moment Sarah looked quite serious, and after what she had just been through he really would be living up to her thoughts if he gave the wrong impression. Especially seeing as how the young girl was on the verge of tears. Kneeling down to her level, Sarah quickly turned her head away from him in defiance.

"I think we both have different definitions of what a normal or good brother is," Jake calmly told his sister. "You probably like to see the knight in shining armor type who treats his little sister like a princess and will rush to their aid for the smallest things. Sorry to disappoint you but that's just not me. I'm someone that likes to make things more interesting by changing it up a bit. When you or Alex get mad at me for something, it just means that you've taken your mind off of whatever we were doing before that. Besides, just as you find it fun to figure out a trainer's strategies, I find it fun figuring out ways to try and escape after you two get mad at me. Even if Espeon always makes that a little hard to do so," he added with a small chuckle. "But if there is one thing I can guarantee you it is that there is probably a part of our definitions that do overlap. While I won't come and instantly save you from anything and everything you get yourself into, if you ever ask me to come help, for any reason whatsoever, I will do so without question. Everything you heard me say to those boys was true, and I will do everything in my power to keep you from getting hurt. I'd be willing to bet that Umbreon is the same way, especially with Eevee and Alex's Espeon. No matter what, I will always be your big brother. And if anything I do is truly bothering you enough for you to forget that, tell me. I would gladly give up anything for you; you just need to say so."

Even if she was still mad at him, after hearing those words Sarah couldn't help but feel the sincerity in his voice. She could deny it as much as she wanted, but Jake had just nearly proven her father's earlier statements. That was the older brother she had always envisioned and wished for, even if it was within the same annoying one she was stuck with. It was at that point she could feel all the earlier anger leave her as the relief of being defended by that brother finally came to the surface. Without even responding, Sarah just collapsed into her brother's arms crying. Unable to understand anything but her repeating "I'm sorry", Jake just sat there holding onto his younger sister as their two Pokémon watched.

"Felling better now?" He asked as she seemed to calmed down after a few minutes.

Smiling as he could feel her nod into his chest, Jake helped his sister up to her feet before standing up himself.

"Now dry up your eyes, if we go back like that Alex will murder me," he said with a small grin.

"Only Alex?' she asked after wiping away her tears.

"Yeah, she'll jump to conclusions pretty quickly and will assume it was my fault, at least until she hears everything. As for Mom and Dad, although I don't like to admit it, I'm about as transparent as glass when it comes to things like this. They wouldn't even ask a question unless we said something first," he ended with a light chuckle.

"I'm sorry Jake," Sarah finally said clearly.

"About what?"

"For a lot of things, but mainly what happened right after the battle, I shouldn't have done that."

"Heh, Dad told you to say that right?"

"Yeah but, I'm not saying it right now because he wanted me to. I'm saying it because I want to."

"Apology accepted Sarah. Besides, you deserved to do that, and I was more-or-less expecting it anyways. Not necessarily Gengar, but retaliation in general. After everything that I have to avoid from Alex, the fact that he can nearly catch me off guard is proof that you are good as his trainer. But if you're actually apologizing by yourself that must mean that the demon is actually opening up to me. Is it a sign of weakness? Or maybe she's just getting soft."

Actually nearly laughing at his statement Sarah just gave a fake 'humpf' and looked away from him.

"I still don't like that name, but I'll let that slide for today," she told him. "But only today, got it?"

"Oh thank you mighty demon, I am humbled by your graciousness."

Playfully hitting her brother, even she couldn't hold her laughter back at that point.

After fending off his sister's assault and helping Eevee back up to her perch on Sarah's left shoulder, Jake just couldn't keep his mouth shut.

"Although I think you might want to choose a different guardian next time," he said pointing at Eevee. "Because this one is obviously too cute to be of much use."

Snapping at the trainer's finger, Eevee made her opinion of Jake's comment clear, even if she purposefully made sure to miss his finger. After all, in the end it was still a compliment. Not to mention she probably couldn't ever bring herself to actually bite him anyways.

"Ooh, then again she still has some fight left in her," he chuckled after pulling his finger away. "Oh well, no need to tell everyone about this little fiasco, right? Come on; let's get something for a cover story."

Putting Sarah's hat back on her head, Jake offered her his hand before starting to walk.

"So how about we go grab some ice cream, my treat."

At that moment, she wasn't just content with walking hand in hand with him. Grabbing and pulling back on his hand, Sarah quickly latched onto his arm with a large smile right across her face. Over the last several years of them traveling she had seen so little of him that the only parts in the end she seemed to remember were the worst parts. Now that she was thinking clearly about her brother again she could vaguely remember something like this happening years before, much like he did for Hannah now.

"Kay!"

* * *

"Ash, Ash dear…"

"Huh? What?"

Just waking up to his wife's voice, it took Ash a few seconds to remember where he was.

"Dear, you were snoring," May told him from the lounge chair to his left.

"No I don't snore," he said with a big yawn, nearly turning over and falling back asleep.

"Not very often, but you do at times," she corrected him with a small laugh. "Especially when you fall asleep somewhere besides our bed."

"Yeah yeah." Sitting up and stretching slightly, he began looking around trying to account for all of his kids out of pure habit. Considering that they were pretty much the only ones on that portion of the beach it wasn't that hard to find them. One by one he found all of them, Hannah and Jake were apparently playing in the sand not too far from them while Sarah was off in the water and Alex was sunbathing on the other side of May. "So Jake and Sarah are back?"

"They've been back for a few hours Ash; you fell asleep almost as soon as we got here. Apparently they just went out to get some ice cream for everyone."

"So then where's my portion?"

"Ask your youngest daughter."

Smiling he couldn't help but shake his head a bit.

"No surprise there." Letting off another large yawn, he couldn't help but wonder about someone who would probably want to be relaxing like he was right now. "You didn't really say too much of it on the ferry, but when is Max supposed to be done with his test? Cause we'll have to remember to call and congratulate him tonight, not to mention figure out some sort of gift. It's not every day someone passes a test like that."

"You have a lot of confidence in him, don't you?"

"Of course, I never had any doubt. I knew he would be the perfect candidate for the position since I first met him, unlike his older sister," he added with a small grin.

"As much as you probably wanted a rebuttal for that, I also have to agree with you. I never saw myself succeeding Dad, although to be honest at the time also I never saw what I would be doing period. But, back to Max, if I remember correctly his test should be over within the hour. As for the gift itself though, I think it would be best if it was some sort of housewarming gift."

"Housewarming gift?"

"Mom and Dad have kept their own gift a secret from Max for when he passes the test. Considering that it would be little odd running the gym out of your parent's home, they are giving him the house and buying a smaller one elsewhere. Though I don't think that they've figured out where they want to move yet."

"He's getting the house?" Ash asked, completely shocked at the thought. "Dang, wish I could have gotten that lucky."

"But do you think we could all have stayed in Pallet? No offense meant to Delia, or yourself for that matter, but I don't think we could have fit."

"Yeah you're right," he agreed. "But then again I never thought that our family would grow this much over the years. Moving here was a little adjustment, but now that I think about it again, I think that we needed a place that was truly ours. And every one of our kids seemed to like it here so I have no regrets moving here."

"Eloquently put Dear, and I couldn't agree more," May told him, while leaning forward and sharing a kiss with her husband. "But on the topic of our kids, are you sure it'll be okay to be giving lessons to Anna and Samantha? Because you know that Sarah, Jake, and maybe even Alex will want to train with you as well before they leave. Not to mention the weeks following the regional championships are your busiest weeks with all the paperwork for incoming challengers to the Battle Frontier. You barely have time to eat with the rest of us sometimes."

"Don't worry about it, I'll manage. A little bit of extra work or a few late nights are nothing compared to seeing them happy. Now I think I can still catch another hour or two of napping," Ash said as he lay back down in the sand. "Just wake me when the kids are ready to leave."

Quickly second guessing his words, Ash rephrased his last statement.

"Or actually how about at least just before sunset," he corrected. "If we leave if up to the kids Hannah would probably keep them from leaving until she finally passes out from exhaustion."

"Or maybe her father is doing enough of it for the both of them," May added while giving him a playful push. "But don't worry; I'll take care of it. You just relax for now, you've got some busy weeks coming up."

"Thanks May."

Giving off another big yawn Ash settled down back into the sand, but just before falling back asleep he heard a slightly high-pitched voice call out over the sound of the rolling waves.

"Papa! Mama!"

The voice that he heard seemed familiar, but it wasn't from one of his kids. Not to mention that none of them had ever called him and May 'Papa' or 'Mama'.

"May, is it just me or does that voice sound familiar?"

Sitting up Ash opened his eyes again just as a soft blue creature raced from the water right into his arms. Even with its face buried in his chest, it didn't take long for him to recognize the Pokémon. Of course the red glow that began emanating from the creature and its two tentacle-like appendages brought back way too many memories as well.

"No, please wait!"

* * *

"Am I going crazy or is Dad twirling around with that strange Pokémon in his hands?"

"I would like to say no because I just can't see Dad talking baby talk to a Pokémon like that, but my eyes and ears are betraying me."

"Big Brother what wrong with Daddy?"

"I have no clue Kiddo. I've never seen him like this before. Let's just hope he's having a mental breakdown."

Alex, Jake, and Hannah couldn't help but stare at their father as he was betraying many of their perceptions of him while their mother looked on with a rather annoyed expression on her face, Raichu and Ninetales standing at her side. Espeon still hadn't moved from her original spot between the couple, but was watching both Ash and May equally. After a moment she gave off a small sigh and laid her head down on her front legs, just continuing to watch the scene.

"He did it again buddy," their mom sighed while scratching just behind Raichu's ears. "You think that I'd have gotten used to it by now but it's still just too much of a change."

"Rai rai," the Electric-Type nodded.

"And it seems that you've gotten pretty good at seeing the truth as well Ninetales, all those years outside your Pokéball are making the difference. But I still don't understand why you like me more than her."

"Okay, now I'm really confused," Jake said as Ninetales brushed up against his mom's leg. "First of all I've only ever heard Dad call Raichu 'buddy' before, and the positioning of him and Ninetales is almost too reminiscent of how they act around him as well."

"I noticed that too," Alex added, barely comprehending what was going on. "If I didn't know better I would almost say that…"

"Hey guys? Why is Dad spinning around with a Manaphy in his arms?"

Turning around, the siblings saw Sarah walking up to them with Eevee close behind, shaking the remaining water out of her fur.

"Wait, you know that Pokémon Sarah?" Alex asked, almost not believing her.

"I've never seen one in person before but I read all about it from one of Dad's books in the study, I believe it was one of the ones from the hidden shelf."

"Hidden shelf?" Their mom asked, finally turning her attention away from Ash. "So you found my stash huh?"

"I found it back when I was five," she grinned. "But I always thought that it was Dad's considering that everything was in his handwriting."

"Wait wait wait," Jake interjected, holding up his hands between the two. "What hidden shelf?"

"The one in the study," Sarah told him, seemingly surprised he didn't already know about it. "In one of the designs on the mantle there is a hidden switch that when pressed pulls part of the bookshelf near the fireplace back into the wall. Behind it is another shelf that's filled with more books."

"What kind of books would Mom and Dad want to hide?"

"Some are just ledgers and log books dealing with the Battle Frontier, but the rest are extremely detailed sourcebooks on many high-class trainers and legendary Pokémon. The ones on the trainers contain nearly everything you would need to know about them; detailed information on their strategies, Pokémon, reaction speeds, habits, you name it. If you lost with the amount of knowledge contained within those books it would be a disgrace. While the ones on the legendary Pokémon are a collection of information from many different sources telling of the myths and legends behind them, sightings, and even their abilities and moves. Some of the notes in there are so specific that they could only have come from firsthand experience."

"Wait, you said there was information about high-class trainers in there?" Jake asked, his curiosity obviously getting the better of him.

"Don't even think about it Jake," his mother told him. "The trainers in those logs are way beyond your current level. They're the ones who even I have to worry about. Sarah, I assume you read all of those books right?"

"Of course," she answered proudly. "I've even taken some of the strategies mentioned in those trainer logs and added them to my own."

"Well that explains a few of those maneuvers I've seen from you," her mom told her with a small smile. "Alright then, tell me what you can remember about Manaphy."

"Um, most of the book was on the legend behind the Prince of the Sea and the Ocean Temple. Do you really want me to summarize it now?"

"No that's okay; just try to remember his abilities as a Pokémon."

"There really wasn't much in there about that, it mostly focused on…" Sarah's eyes went wide. "Can that really happen? I thought that it was just part of the myth."

"Nope," her mother sighed. "It's as real as you and Eevee are right now. Trust me; it was hard for me to take in at first as well."

"So then you're…and he's…"

Unable to finish her sentence Sarah burst out laughing, much to everyone else's surprise.

"So they figured it out, huh Ash?" Their dad said as he walked up behind them.

"Papa!" Manaphy called out as he jumped from one set of arms to another. "Papa, Manaphy love you! Manaphy happy see Papa, Papa happy see Manaphy?"

"It's nice to see you too Manaphy," their mother told the little Pokémon, currently cuddling into her chest. "And yes, while I am quite happy now. Although you could have chose a better time to show up," she finished with a small laugh, but as he snuggled in a little further a distinct blush grew across her face. "But can you take it easy please? I'm been a long time since I felt these types of sensations."

"Ash? Papa?"

Jake and Alex almost couldn't believe their ears.

"Um, what's going on here?" Jake finally asked outright.

"Believe it or not, it's exactly as it sounds like Jake," his mom told him.

"Exactly as it sounds? Wait, Mom does that mean you're, Dad?" The expression on Jake's face was completely priceless; he looked thoroughly confused at the realization. Alex seemed to have the same expression on her face as well but was completely silent as the thought surfaced.

"The one and only," their 'mom' said. "Well, almost."

"So does that mean…Dad is…Mom?"

"Sorry dear," May told him. "That's just how things are right now."

"And you two aren't surprised about this?" He asked, still almost not believing what they said.

"It's happened far more often than you think," Ash informed them, a slightly annoyed look on his face. "Alex, you said that I didn't have any more stories that could surprise you right? As Sarah probably already suspects, the details that were in that book about the Ocean Temple were all firsthand that your mom and I experienced. And obviously you remember the story about how I confessed to your mother; well that wasn't the full story…"

"You mean you were…like this?" Alex finally spoke up, still trying to get a grip on what was going on.

"For most of the day, yes," May told them. "I think I still have the dress he gave me that day stored away someplace."

"And you never told us, why?"

"Would you really have believed us if we told you the actual truth?" Ash asked his daughter.

"No I guess not, so what actually happened? And why did you keep this from us? Is this really how Mom learned to understand Raichu?"

"We'll talk more about that tonight if you want, I can understand that you probably have a lot of questions for us. But first, Manaphy these are our kids; Alex, Jake, Sarah, and Hannah. You might even consider them your brother and sisters. Kids, this is Manaphy. We met him years ago when he hatched from an egg May was caring for."

"Mana?"

Cocking his head to the side the Seafaring Pokémon, looked curiously at the other humans. They all seemed very interested in him, even Sarah who still had a few tears in her eyes from the earlier laughing.

"Phi!"

Jumping from Ash's arms into Jake's, Manaphy quickly made himself comfortable in the new spot.

"He's rather affectionate," Jake noted as the Water-Type relaxed into his arms.

"You could say that he was your mother's Pokémon at one point," Ash told them. "And the way she always raises her Pokémon, you know almost all of hers are like that."

"You aren't that different you know," May countered. "Just look down at the two that never seem to leave your side."

"Guilty as charged," he said with a quick laugh.

"Big Brother can I see him?" Hannah asked, tugging lightly at his swim trunks.

"Sure Kiddo."

Leaning down to his younger sister's level, Hannah carefully extended a hand out and touched the top of the Pokémon's head.

"He's squishy," she giggled while petting it softly.

"Yeah he is, isn't he?"

Pushing up against the young girl's hand, Manaphy seemed quite content with the kids so far.

"Hey Manaphy, can you switch me with someone else's body?" Jake asked him.

"Don't even think about asking to swap with me Jake," Alex quickly spat out.

"Now why would I want to do that? Swapping with you would be pointless; I know virtually everything about you. Dad or Sarah would be more interesting, especially if I can get some of their Pokémon knowledge."

Alex turned bright red with that one comment.

"And just what do you mean by that?"

"That's enough," Ash told them after walking up. "First of all, it doesn't work like that Jake. And Manaphy please, don't use Heart Swap on our kids. They don't need any other reason to fight."

"Phi!" The Pokémon happily nodded.

"Okay everyone, time to pick everything up," May said while clapping her hands once. "We're heading home."

Surprisingly none of the kids even put up a fight. Or at least not to heading back, the only argument was why Jake didn't have to help and why he was the only one holding Manaphy.

"Well Ash, it looks like we can't hide it anymore," May told her husband as they were walking back home. The two adults were a little ways behind their kids and their Pokémon, but none of them seemed to notice too much.

"We knew that it had to come out someday May, although I never expected it to be like this."

"Mm-hmm," she responded while holding onto his arm and resting her head on his shoulder. But it was slightly more awkward than usual considering that Ash was now in the shorter body.

"May can you please not do that right now? Because it's kinda embarrassing when I think everyone sees me like that."

"Oh come on Ash," May told him in a slightly seductive voice. "It's been too long since we were like this. How about we have a little bit of fun tonight? Manaphy will probably be sleeping in the kids' room tonight and…"

"Okay that's enough May," Ash's said as his face flushed a bright red and he looked away from her. "We agreed to not bring up that wager again anytime soon."

"But it was fun," she insisted, pulling him closer. "Deny it as much as you want, you liked it too."

"I don't even know what to think of that night," he confessed, getting redder by the second. "But can we please not discuss this in public?"

"Oh fine."

Pulling away slightly from him, May simply walked with him hand-in-hand.

"This is an odd way to celebrate Sarah's victory," Ash finally said after a few minutes. "I kinda feel bad for her that this came up now."

"Ash, don't worry. She doesn't seem unhappy about this. Besides, I doubt that any of them would be unhappy just being home with the rest of their family. Even if they seem to fight more when it happens."

Looking up towards their kids, Ash couldn't help but let a smile come to his face.

"And I couldn't ask for it any other way. We're lucky to have them."

"Yep, I couldn't imagine being without them by now. They are just as much my happiness as you are. In fact, I think that it wouldn't be too bad if we expanded that happiness…"

"Um, we'll talk about that one later," Ash gulped. "Although we never really planned on having Hannah, I think we might want discuss in length about having another one."

"_And I think I'll be talking to the doctor soon as well,"_ he silently added. _"If not I just might have to face yet another chance roll at nine months in hell. Even if every one of those months paid themselves back countless times over."_

"Alright fine, well let's hurry up," May insisted, pulling on Ash's hand a little. "They'll want to hear another one of our stories before they go to sleep tonight, and will obviously have plenty of questions as well."

* * *

It feels as though the beginning of this chapter seemed a little rushed but I just couldn't think of too much to lengthen it out, even if I knew the perfect spot to do so. Sorry about that.

I know at least some of you were probably hoping for a longer story but all I wanted this to be was a short finisher for the series considering I got a good amount of questions at the end of the last one. In fact my original intention was simply to cut it off just right after Sarah's battle. But after I mentioned Manaphy without thinking during the finals I knew that I should revisit him one last time before the series' end. He was the reason for the original that the "Lucky" series is based off of, "To Walk in the Shoes of Another". So I gave a bit of a nod back to that one, in a couple ways.

I think I brought the limits of the T-Rating pretty close at the end there, but innuendo is such a fun thing as long as it isn't totally overt as to what it might mean.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this. As I mentioned at the beginning I know that these types of fics aren't what people usually come to the site to read so I'm happy to see every tick on the hit counter. It's doubtful that another story will be coming from me anytime soon, but who knows?


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